A groundbreaking work that exposes the twisted origins of affirmative action, WHEN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION WAS WHITE: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America demonstrates that all the key programs passed during the New Deal and Fair Deal era of the 1930s and 1940s were created in a deeply discriminatory manner. Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History at Columbia University, points out that this was no accident.

With the United States still in an era of legal segregation, the powerful Southern wing of the Democratic Party provided the framework for Social Security, the GI Bill, and landmark labor laws that helped create the foundations of the modem middle class. Through mechanisms that specifically excluded maids and farm workers and through laws that kept administration in local hands, the gap between blacks and whites actually widened despite postwar prosperity.

As the power of Southern Democrats grew, so did their ability to enforce legislation that protected their own interests. Katznelson maintains that public policy, including affirmative action, has insufficiently taken this troubling legacy into account. WHEN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION WAS WHITE; which turns conventional wisdom about the New Deal on its head, is sure to stir a national debate.

WHEN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION WAS WHITE demonstrates that all the key programs passed dur­ing the New Deal and Fair Deal era of the 1930s and 1940s were created in a deeply discriminatory manner. This was no accident. With the United States still in an era of legal segregation, the power­ful southern wing of the Democratic Party provid­ed the framework for Social Security, the GI Bill, and landmark labor laws that helped create the foun­dations of the modern middle class. Through mech­anisms that specifically excluded maids and farm workers and through laws that kept administration in local hands, the gap between blacks and whites actually widened despite postwar prosperity. The publication of this deeply disturbing work promises to create a national debate on the meaning of affir­mative action and the responsibility of government.