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An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, Volume 1 (Black & African-American Studies)
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About An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem And Modern
Product Description In this landmark effort to understand African American people in the New World, Gunnar Myrdal provides deep insight into the contradictions of American democracy as well as a study of a people within a people. The title of the book, 'An American Dilemma', refers to the moral contradiction of a nation torn between allegiance to its highest ideals and awareness of the base realities of racial discrimination. The touchstone of this classic is the jarring discrepancy between the American creed of respect for the inalienable rights to freedom, justice, and opportunity for all and the pervasive violations of the dignity of blacks. The appendices are a gold mine of information, theory, and methodology. Indeed, two of the appendices were issued as a separate work given their importance for systematic theory in social research. The new introduction by Sissela Bok offers a remarkably intimate yet rigorously objective appraisal of Myrdal―a social scientist who wanted to see himself as an analytic intellectual, yet had an unbending desire to bring about change. 'An American Dilemma' is testimonial to the man as well as the ideas he espoused. When it first appeared 'An American Dilemma' was called "the most penetrating and important book on contemporary American civilization" by Robert S. Lynd; "One of the best political commentaries on American life that has ever been written" in The American Political Science Review; and a book with "a novelty and a courage seldom found in American discussions either of our total society or of the part which the Negro plays in it" in 'The American Sociological Review'. It is a foundation work for all those concerned with the history and current status of race relations in the United States. Amazon.com Review Gunnar Myrdal belongs in a category with Alexis de Tocqueville and J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur--non-American authors who have written essential works on the American character. In 1954, the Swedish-born Myrdal delivered this massive (and massively influential) book on the status of American blacks. It is a somewhat depressing account of segregation and lynch law, but it is also full of optimism. Myrdal's hopefulness appears to have been justified. Black Americans still face many problems, but their place in American life has much improved, thanks to a near-complete revolution in racial attitudes among whites and a highly successful civil rights movement. If we learn about the present by reading about the past, then An American Dilemma has much to teach us today, especially about how far the United States has come. Review -One of the best political commentaries on American life that has ever been written.--The American Political Science Review-A novelty and a courage seldom found in American discussions either of our total society or of the part which the Negro plays in it.--The American Sociological Review"One of the best political commentaries on American life that has ever been written."-The American Political Science Review"A novelty and a courage seldom found in American discussions either of our total society or of the part which the Negro plays in it."-The American Sociological Review""One of the best political commentaries on American life that has ever been written.""-The American Political Science Review""A novelty and a courage seldom found in American discussions either of our total society or of the part which the Negro plays in it.""-The American Sociological Review" About the Author Gunnar Myrdal (1898-1987) served as Swedish minister of trade and commerce, a Rockefeller Fellow, and wrote An American Dilemma at the invitation of the Carnegie Corporation. He returned to his homeland where he was, until his death, professor at the Institute of International Economic Relations at Stockholm University.
