When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America

The groundbreaking, “provocative” (New York Times Book Review) work that exposed the racially discriminatory precursors of affirmative action, now updated with a new introduction.

With this explosive analysis, Ira Katznelson fundamentally recast our understanding of twentieth-century American history, demonstrating that the key programs passed during the New Deal and Fair Deal eras were not, as we are so often told, fundamentally equitable or impartial, but discriminatory in the way they del...