The Wages of Whiteness:
Race and the Making of the American Working Class
Combining classical Marxism, psychoanalysis, and the new labor history pioneered by E. P. Thompson and Herbert Gutman, David Roediger's widely acclaimed
book provides an original study of the formative years of working-class racism in the United States. This, he argues, cannot be explained simply with reference
to economic advantage; rather, white working-class racism is underpinned by a complex series of psychological and ideological mechanisms that reinforce racial
stereotypes, and thus help to forge the identities of white workers in opposition to Blacks.
In a new preface, Roediger reflects on the reception, influence, and critical response to The Wages of Whiteness, while Kathleen Cleaver's insightful
introduction hails the importance of a work that has become a classic.
“At last an American labor historian realizes that white workers have a racial identity that matters as race matters to workers who are not white.”
—Nell Irvin Painter, Princeton University
“Roediger's exciting book makes us understand what it means to see oneself as white in a new way. An extremely important and insightful book.“
—Lawrence Glickman, The Nation
New Edition London and New York: Verso Books, 2007.
Revised Edition London and New York: Verso Books, 1999.
London and New York: Verso Books, 1991.
ISBN-10: 1844671453
ISBN-13: 978-1844671458