Race, Ethnicity, and Class in American Social Thought, 1865-1919

In this innovative study, Professor Altschuler argues that the origins of the modern liberal state can be found in the responses to important social issues after the Civil War. The questions raised by emancipation and the new role of blacks in American society was a key issue that would be superseded by the concerns over the "new immigration" in the 1880s. Despite many retreats, a new progressive synthesis slowly emerged to challenge nativism and Social Darwinism--a development that ushered in a new era in American social thought.