White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide

By Carol Anderson

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From the Civil War to our combustible present, White Rage reframes the continuing conversation about race in America, chronicling the history of the powerful forces opposed to black progress.

Since the abolishment of slavery in 1865, every time African Americans have made advances towards full democratic participation, white reaction has fuelled a rollback of any gains.

Carefully linking historical flashpoints – from the post-Civil War Black Codes and Jim Crow to expressions of white rage after the election of America's first black president – Carol Anderson renders visible the long lineage of white rage and the different names under which it hides. Compelling and dramatic in the history it relates, White Rage adds a vital new dimension to the conversation about race in America.

'Beautifully written and exhaustively researched' CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE

'An extraordinarily timely and urgent call to confront the legacy of structural racism' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

'Brilliant' ROBIN DIANGELO, AUTHOR OF WHITE FRAGILITY

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Jul 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781526631633

Carol Anderson

Carol Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler Professor and Chair of African American Studies at Emory University. She is the author of One Person, No Vote, longlisted for the National Book Award and a finalist for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award; White Rage, a New York Times bestseller and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; Bourgeois Radicals; and Eyes off the Prize. She was named a Guggenheim Fellow for Constitutional Studies and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Reviews for White Rage

[anniik_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This should be required reading. It is not an easy read, but even having a degree in political science, I learned things that I didn’t know (probably because of the ethnocentrism of our education system). Excellent book.

[drfuriosa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An enlightening and enraging read. I have much more to say but am still forming my thoughts.

[bookwyrmm_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting look at how many advancements in Civil Rights were soon after rolled-back in sneaky ways.

[hemlokgang · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A painful read, comprised of what felt like an endless litany of shameful behavior based on white rage. Rage at people who dared to question, to aspire, to sit at the front of the bus! So much wasted energy, money, and lives, all to keep people in their place. We can do better. I think we can.

[arosoff-513117 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an excellent and well written survey of key periods in black advancement and how, each time, whites have used the system to push back and ensure that black Americans would not get the rights due to them.

The only caveat is that it's short, and covers a lot of ground. It's a good overview, but there are so many key events covered that it could easily be four times as long, and events can't be covered with good depth. It does an excellent job at showing the big picture and sequence of events, but you may find yourself wanting more.

[villemezbrown · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A devastating history of oppression and suppression made all the worse when one realizes how many of the outrages still exist today in only slightly modified forms. Overwhelming at times, but incredibly educational and enlightening.

[bness2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Powerful, brief history of Racism and its roots. It is so clear that racism remains alive and well in the US and we need to change that.

[johnjmeyer · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Powerful and brief is good in my book. I have done lots of reading in the area of white supremacist ideology and US history with respect to government and legal policies respecting African Americans, and this is a punchy and well written short volume that traces the consistent betrayal of our stated ideals when it comes down to a showdown with ensuring continued white dominance. And, I would disagree with the reviewer who said there wasn't much new here. There were a couple of new revelations to me , including President Andrew Johnson's championing of free 160 acre giveaways to poor whites while opposing dividing the liberated plantations to the formerly enslaved who had worked it -- to cite just one example. A highly recommended read/listen.

[cdogzilla · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Harrowing and meticulously argued. Should be required reading in every high school.

[neddludd · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This could have been better. What we have is a polemic in which the author paints a picture of systemic racism in the U.S. There's not much cultural exploration--why whites have such visceral hatred and fear of blacks. What's presented instead are bizarre and twisted Supreme Court decisions revealing that from the very pinnacle of American constitutional government, Blacks get screwed. Interspersed are comments showing how absurd and evil the Confederacy (past and present) remains. Voter suppression is anti-Democratic but it's today's version of the Poll Tax and other bars to voting. Useful but not definitive. However, remember that Tom Paine also wrote a polemic...

[larryerick · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Many decades ago, I had a high school English teacher that gave my class a reading list to use through the school year. One particular category of books, I will always remember, was "Man's Inhumanity to Man". White America has unquestionably always had a burr under its saddle, to put it mildly, for its fellow mankind of a darker complexion. It's never been quite enough to just disrespect in silence. If I could offer just one book for someone to read about the black experience in America, this would certainly be in strong contention. Another single book would be Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. However, if Alexander's book is the skillfully, painstakingly laid out prosecutorial court case of America's inhumanity to man, then this author's book is the fiery, vivid closing summation, drawing it all together for maximum impact. Hopefully readers will find the route to justice to this case and seek the source to man's humanity.

[abycats_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Superb. Detailed (but relatively brief) chronology of the many acts, legislation, and cruelties used, after the Civil War, to keep blacks in their place despite the abolition of slavery. Much of this information was not known to me and I was appalled to realize how many of my casual beliefs are based on incorrect data. A real wake-up call. I'd seen the tip of the iceberg before but, growing up near the Mason-Dixon Line and in a fairly lily-white world, I simply didn't have the background provided here.

I naively welcomed Obama as our President. It took me years to realize that the instant and total resistance to his actions and viewpoints was based simply on racism. I couldn't get my hands around that concept. This book helps me to understand the attitudes held by many whites that prevented getting past the color of his skin, without regard to his qualifications or how much he was part of the white world.

Was very impressed by the author when she appeared on the Rachel Maddox show on several panels. I thought her viewpoints on race were accessible, detail-based, and relatively unemotional. This book proved her to be an ideal guide into the facts behind "black lives matter." She writes clearly, logically, chronologically, and let's the facts speak without the angry overlay that would be so easy to add. Cannot recommend this book highly enough.

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Really good concept and framing, but execution that will not be informative to anyone who’s read a reasonable amount on American history and race. Advances in racial equality, specifically for African-Americans, lead to backlashes attempting to recreate and reinforce racial hierarchy; that’s Reconstruction, that’s the Great Migration, that’s the Nixonian/Reaganite response to civil rights—each time making heavier use of the prison-industrial complex as an alternative—and that’s the alt-Right/Tea Party.