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Whiteness in America

Monica McDermott

$32.95

Paperback

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English
Polity Press
26 June 2020
When Americans think about race, “white” is often the furthest thing from their minds. Yet whiteness colors so much of social life in the United States, from the organization and maintenance of social structures to an individual’s sense of self. 

White has long been the invisible default category against which other racial and ethnic groups are silently compared and marked out as “different.” At the same time, whiteness is itself an active marker that many bitterly fight to keep distinctive, and the shifting boundaries of whiteness reflect the nation’s history of race relations, right back to the earliest period of European colonization. One thing that has remained consistent is that whiteness is a definitive mark of privilege. Yet, this privilege is differentially experienced across a broad and eclectic spectrum, as is white identity itself. In order to uncover the ways in which its rigid structures and complicated understandings permeate American life, this book examines some of the many varieties of what it means to be white – across geography, class, and social context – and the culture, social movements, and changing demographics of whiteness in America.

By:  
Imprint:   Polity Press
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 213mm,  Width: 137mm,  Spine: 18mm
Weight:   227g
ISBN:   9780745672199
ISBN 10:   0745672191
Pages:   200
Publication Date:  
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Monica McDermott is Associate Professor of Sociology at Arizona State University.

Reviews for Whiteness in America

With whiteness studies at a crossroads, McDermott patiently walks us through the sociological research that reveals how whiteness is now both visible and invisible, a source of identity and mobilization as well as of hidden privilege and cultural normativity. -Douglas Hartmann, University of Minnesota In her unique, insightful, and impeccably timed book, McDermott unpacks the layered, contingent, and ever changing definition of whiteness at a time when colorblind narratives of race, white nationalism, and white resentment have moved center stage in American politics. Her book is essential reading for anyone interested in American race relations. -Charles Gallagher, La Salle University An accessible guide to the field of whiteness and to white identity in the United States. Few texts cover this much ground without oversimplifying concepts or losing sight of both social structure and human agency. -Mary Romero, 110th President of the American Sociological Association


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