The Internal Colony - by Sam Klug (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Sam Klug aims to show that the divisions among American liberals and radicals over the subject of race during the Cold War were influenced in heretofore unrecognized ways by global debates over colonialism and decolonization. He recasts what has long been seen as a series of primarily domestic policy debates--e.g., over the efficacy of the War on Poverty, or over various conceptions of African American separatism--showing them to be products of deeper and farther-flung intellectual currents. The result is a history that broadens our understanding of ideological formation (specifically how Americans conceptualized racial power and independence) by revealing a much wider and more dynamic network of influences"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

An explication of how global decolonization provoked profound changes in American political theory and practice.

In The Internal Colony, Sam Klug reveals the central but underappreciated importance of global decolonization to the divergence between mainstream liberalism and the Black freedom movement in postwar America. Klug reconsiders what has long been seen as a matter of primarily domestic policy in light of a series of debates concerning self-determination, postcolonial economic development, and the meanings of colonialism and decolonization. These debates deeply influenced the discord between Black activists and state policymakers and formed a crucial dividing line in national politics in the 1960s and 1970s.

The result is a history that broadens our understanding of ideological formation--particularly how Americans conceptualized racial power and political economy--by revealing a much wider and more dynamic network of influences. Linking intellectual, political, and social movement history, The Internal Colony illuminates how global decolonization transformed the terms of debate over race and social class in the twentieth-century United States.

Review Quotes

"A timely intellectual history, which forces us to rethink some of the dominant narratives of US Black radicalism in this period and advocates a properly internationalist frame."-- "Spectre"

"An extraordinary work of historical research on the entanglement of worldwide decolonization and post-WWII African American history and a comprehensive inquiry into how Black intellectuals and social movements made use of colonial comparisons and analogies to understand racial domination, inequality, and possibilities of freedom 'within' the United States." --Nikhil Pal Singh, author of 'Black Is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy'

"This expansive and deeply researched book sheds new light on the relationship between global anticolonialism and Black political thought within the United States by tracing the history of the idea of Black Americans as an internal colony from the aftermath of World War II to the Black Power era. In this compelling work, Klug broadens our understanding of the global dimensions of U.S. race politics in the twentieth century."--Mary L. Dudziak, author of 'Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy'

"Sam Klug's The Internal Colony is a landmark book that explores how the competing definitions of colonialism and decolonization shaped US domestic and foreign policy during the twentieth century. Capacious, well-researched, and intellectually rich, the book offers a compelling analysis of the varied debates between Black activists and liberal policymakers during a critical moment in the history of Black internationalism. This is a must-read for those seeking to understand the interconnections of race, politics, and global thought in modern America." --Keisha N. Blain, author of 'Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom'

"The idea that African Americans constitute a nation within a nation has long been a mainstay of Black political thought and practice. In this trenchant exploration of the internal colony thesis, one iteration of this wider idea, Sam Klug demonstrates that comparison to the colonial condition produced a shared if contested vocabulary among New Deal policymakers and Black Power activists alike. With a razor-sharp delineation of the uses and meanings which accrued to the internal colony, Klug powerfully centers decolonization's significance for American politics and documents the persistence of Black internationalism."--Adom Getachew, author of 'Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination'