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Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North
The struggle for racial equality in the North has been a footnote in most books about civil rights in America. Now this monumental new work from one of the most brilliant historians of his generation sets the record straight. Sweet Land of Liberty is an epic, revelatory account of the abiding quest for justice in states from Illinois to New York, and of how the intense nor...more
Hardcover, 720 pages
Published
November 4th 2008
by Random House
(first published 2008)
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When most students jump into American Civil Rights history, there is usually something very large missing--the north and the west. Sugrue does an amazing job at covering civil rights struggles outside the American south, especially with respect to housing, schooling, employment, and government contracts.
Sweet Land of Liberty is essentially a rude awakening. We all know about firehoses, dogs, and police brutality in Birmingham; and we've all heard about The Mississippi Summer of 196...more
Sweet Land of Liberty is essentially a rude awakening. We all know about firehoses, dogs, and police brutality in Birmingham; and we've all heard about The Mississippi Summer of 196...more
i'm ambivalent / frustrated about the politics rendered in this narrative. but nonetheless, it is a very very well done broad history that is a great introduction to these struggles. while not necessarily forgotten, they are certainly not as iconic as what the historical memory suggests is the civil rights movement. the book could have been strengthened by more attention to struggles sometimes associated with "Black Power" in the attempt to draw out more fluid and complex relationshi...more
A masterfully written account of the Northern civil rights movement. Sugrue might not add any strikingly new conceptual claims, but his book is an excellent synthesis of the twenty years of work in civil rights history. Especially helpful is his attention to grassroots struggles (which rarely followed the violent/non-violent dichotomy that usually characterizes the civil rights story) and small towns as well as big cities.
A colossal undertaking. His writing style isn't quite as engaging as it could be, which makes this a slog at times. But there are many important stories in these pages.
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Assigned this book twice. It's way too big but the topic is good. I only read a couple chapters.
Full review here: http://landismom.wordpress.com/2010/07/2...
It was a little slow going at first but after a few chapters, I really got into this book. I learned so much and it seems all the more applicable now that I'm living in Philadelphia. A very powerful reminder of how racism still exists and WHY it exists.
I thought Nicholas Lemann's "The Promised Land" accomplished more in fewer pages. This is a good history of an incredibly important, yet little studied topic, yet I felt like there was little to no original research in it.
Finished reading except for the notes in back. It's excellent, I'll try to write some sort of review...
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