This explosive new book challenges many of the long-prevailing assumptions
about blacks, about Jews, about Germans, about slavery, and about
education. Plainly written, powerfully reasoned, and backed with a
startling array of documented facts, Black Rednecks and White Liberals takes on
not only the trendy intellectuals of our times but also such historic
interpreters of American life as Alexis de Tocqueville and Frederick Law
Olmsted.
In a series of long essays, this book presents an in-depth look at key beliefs
behind many mistaken and dangerous actions, policies, and trends. It
presents eye-opening insights into the historical development of the ghetto
culture that is today wrongly seen as a unique black identity-- a culture
cheered on toward self-destruction by white liberals who consider themselves
"friends" of blacks. An essay titled "The Real History of Slavery"
presents a jolting re-examination of that tragic institution and the narrow and
distorted way it is too often seen today. The reasons for the venomous
hatred of Jews, and of other groups like them in countries around the world, are
explored in an essay that asks, "Are Jews Generic?" Misconceptions of
German history in general, and of the Nazi era in particular, are also
re-examined. So too are the inspiring achievements and painful tragedies of
black education in the United
States.
Black Rednecks and White Liberals is the capstone of decades of outstanding
research and writing on racial and cultural issues by Thomas Sowell.
