Description
Book SynopsisA study of Birmingham, Alabama, and the black struggle for civil rights. It argues that Alabama's path to industrialism differed significantly from that in the North and Midwest. No other industrial city in the United States depended so much upon the exploitation of black labour.
Trade ReviewWilson is knowledgeable and insightful. * CHOICE *
This book is destined to make the 'required reading list' on Alabama history. * The Alabama Review *
Merits attention since it poses a direct challenge to the ongoing celebration of difference that pervades our field. . . . A creditable job of summarizing the work of recent leftist scholars who critique postmodernist/poststructuralist fashion. * Labor History *
America's Johannesburg is comprehensive, theoretically-driven, and convincing. America's Johannesburg contributes to the fields of urban studies, geography, and historical sociology by providing a case example of how racial oppression manifests itself in historically and geographically contingent ways. The text will be useful to scholars interested in the micro and macro processes that institutionalized and organized racial inequality in the U.S. southern economy. * Ethnic and Racial Studies *
These two books [America's Johannesburg and Race and Place in Birmingham by Bobby M. Wilson] are extremely important and every urban scholar should read them. Most significant, Wilson has constructed a theoretical and conceptual framework that can be used to study the Black experience across time, as well as at specific moments in time. * Urban Studies *
A fresh and original interpretation. The book contributes substantially to the historiography of industrial growth in Alabama. The author provides much insight into the racial dimensions of Birmingham's development. A pioneering work. -- W. David Lewis, Auburn University
A powerful addition to academic fields as varied as southern studies and Marxian critical theory. Wilson has written a book of uncommon depth. His melding of critical race theory, Marxian critique, and regional analysis is effective and engrossing. Wilson's work is fascinating and well-written. * Economic Geography *
Table of ContentsChapter 1 1 Introduction: Race and Capitalist Development Chapter 2 2 The Origins of Racism: Discursive and Material Practices Chapter 3 3 The State’s Role in Sustaining Race-Connected Practices Chapter 4 4 Capital Restructuring and the Transformation of Race Chapter 5 5 The Slave Mode of Production Chapter 6 6 A Regime of Accumulation Based on Slave Labor Chapter 7 7 Reconstruction Chapter 8 8 From Slave to Free Black Labor Chapter 9 9 Development of the Birmingham Regime Chapter 10 10 Industrialization with Inexpensive Labor Chapter 11 11 Noncompetitive Labor Segmentation and Laissez-Faire Race Relations Chapter 12 12 Accommodating the Racial Order: The Rise of Institutionalized Racism Chapter 13 13 Scientific Management and the Growth of Black/White Competition Chapter 14 14 The Growth of Corporate Power: The Emergence of Fordism Chapter 15 15 The Great Depression and the Transformation of the Planter Regime Chapter 16 16 The New Deal and Blacks Chapter 17 17 The Southern Shift of Fordism and Entrepreneurial Regimes Chapter 18 18 Conclusion
