American Babylon : Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland / Robert O. Self.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Self, Robert O., author.

Series:

Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America

Politics and Society in Modern America ; 34

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Suburban life--California--Oakland Region--History--20th century.

Suburban life.

City and town life--California--Oakland Region--History--20th century.

City and town life.

Social classes--California--Oakland Region--History--20th century.

Social classes.

Homeowners--Political activity--California--Oakland Region.

Homeowners.

Property tax--Political aspects--California--Oakland Region--History--20th century.

Property tax.

Black power--California--Oakland Region--History--20th century.

Black power.

African Americans--Civil rights--California--Oakland Region--History--20th century.

African Americans.

Oakland Region (Calif.)--Economic conditions--20th century.

Oakland Region (Calif.).

Oakland Region (Calif.)--Politics and government--20th century.

Oakland Region (Calif.)--Race relations.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (406 p.)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2005]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

As the birthplace of the Black Panthers and a nationwide tax revolt, California embodied a crucial motif of the postwar United States: the rise of suburbs and the decline of cities, a process in which black and white histories inextricably joined. American Babylon tells this story through Oakland and its nearby suburbs, tracing both the history of civil rights and black power politics as well as the history of suburbanization and home-owner politics. Robert Self shows that racial inequities in both New Deal and Great Society liberalism precipitated local struggles over land, jobs, taxes, and race within postwar metropolitan development. Black power and the tax revolt evolved together, in tension. American Babylon demonstrates that the history of civil rights and black liberation politics in California did not follow a southern model, but represented a long-term struggle for economic rights that began during the World War II years and continued through the rise of the Black Panthers in the late 1960's. This struggle yielded a wide-ranging and profound critique of postwar metropolitan development and its foundation of class and racial segregation. Self traces the roots of the 1978 tax revolt to the 1940's, when home owners, real estate brokers, and the federal government used racial segregation and industrial property taxes to forge a middle-class lifestyle centered on property ownership. Using the East Bay as a starting point, Robert Self gives us a richly detailed, engaging narrative that uniquely integrates the most important racial liberation struggles and class politics of postwar America.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Part One. URBAN AND SUBURBAN POLITICS AND THE CALIFORNIA DREAM, 1945-1964

1. Industrial Garden

2. Working Class

3. Tax Dollar

PART II. RACE, URBAN TRANSFORMATION, AND THE STRUGGLE AGAINST SEGREGATION, 1954-1966

4. Redistribution

5. Opportunity Politics

PART III. BLACK LIBERATION AND SUBURBAN REVOLT, 1964-1978

6. Black Power

7. White Noose

8. Babylon

Conclusion

Appendix. Population, Housing, and Taxes

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [339]-378) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9780691124865

0691124868

9781400844173

1400844177

OCLC:

863670968