Racism, Class and the Racialized Outsider

Satnam Virdee is Professor of Sociology at the University of Glasgow, UK.

"A remarkable study of the interplay between racism and anti-racism in shaping the contours of working class organization and struggle in England. It is a nuanced and sophisticated contribution both to the empirical account of this historical trajectory, and to our theoretical understanding of the mutually constitutive character of race and class." - Erik Olin Wright, Vilas Distinguished Professor, University of Wisconsin, USA, and Past-President, American Sociological Association "A serious and conceptually sophisticated analysis of key aspects of racism and anti-racism in the contemporary environment. Its combination of history and sociology makes it somewhat unique and it has no obvious competitor at the present time." - John Solomos, Professor of Sociology, University of Warwick, UK "Virdee's inspiring and historically wide-ranging account of the hidden role played by racialized minorities in the formative moments of English labour history sets a new benchmark in work on race and class." - Verity Burgmann, Professor Emerita, Monash University, Australia "This pathbreaking and cogently written book is a major contribution to our historical understanding of racism and working class politics in England." - Rodolfo D. Torres, University of California, Irvine, USA "It is written in an engaging and accessible way and manages to convey its argument that English working class history cannot be fully understood without the lens of race to interrogate key events. This is a book that I would recommend to labour studies students for a different take on working class history of the labour movement, but also students of sociology and race in order that they develop a more nuanced understanding of the process of racialization through some of the key events of English working class struggles." - Jane Holgate, University of Leeds, UK "Racism, Class and the Racialized Outsider makes an important contribution to the history of the English Working class, trade union movement and the left; crucially it is highly readable." - Sian Moore, Centre for Employment Studies Research "He has made a significant contribution to the writing of a more nuanced and true history of the working classes of the British Isles" Danny Reilly, Institute of Race Relations "Virdee's work provides a highly useful historical foundation from which to approach the task of explicating, politically and theoretically, more recent linkages between the economic violence of growing class inequality and the racisms with which it is fundamentally intertwined." Margarita Aragon, Associate Lecturer in Sociology, Goldsmiths College, UK "This book is important for emphasizing how the racializing of outsiders has long historical roots and Virdee's insistence on putting race at the centre of our understanding of social history is timely" Lucy Williams, University of Kent, UK "Racism, Class and the Racialized Outsider is that rare thing nowadays, an academic book that not only engages with a wider public but also provides a sharp campaigning edge to the analysis. Historical and broad in its coverage, this is one of the best accounts of contemporary racism published in a good long time." Mark Perryman, Philosophy Football

• 1. Introduction2. Class, Nation and the Racialized Outsider3. Racism and the Contradictions of Socialist Nationalism4. Race, Empire and its Discontents5. Class War, Racist Riots and Communism6. Racism: from the Welfare Settlement to Enoch Powell7. Socialists, Anti-racism and Working Class Bifurcation8. Municipal Anti-racism and Black Self-organization9. Conclusion.