Racially Writing the Republic

Bruce Baum is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of The Rise and Fall of the Caucasian Race: A Political History of Racial Identity. Duchess Harris is Associate Professor of American Studies at Macalester College. She is the author of Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton (forthcoming).Duchess Harris is Associate Professor of American Studies at Macalester College. She is the author of Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton (forthcoming).

“I have no hesitation in wholeheartedly recommending this wide-ranginganalysis of the ‘racial writing’ of America to scholars and students within American Studies, Political Science, History, Race and Ethnicity and Sociology. I believe it is a welcome and significant addition to a growing body of literature on the critical analysis of racial formations.” - Rachel L. Finn, Ethnic and Racial Studies “In bringing together in one volume new readings of classical politicaltheory and explorations of protest thought historically excluded from the canon, this book will serve multiple readerships. . . . The book is a bold attempt to move the academic center to the left and disrupt the traditionalways we have come to conceive of both American studies and political thought.”- Shani Mott, Journal of American History “[A]ll fourteen essays in Racially Writing the Republic are boldly written, insightful, and thought provoking. . . . The history of the American republic, as racially written, ignores much of the multiracial contributions of non-Europeans. It also reconstructs an American identity through white hierarchical lens where meritocracy and equality of opportunity are uncontested. Racially Writing the Republic reminds us of America’s shortcomings, if not the failure, of such an identity.” - James D. Ward, Journal of American Ethnic History “In asking how U.S. commitments to liberty and white supremacy have cohabited, this collection brings to bear state-of-the-art scholarship and a long historical view. Moreover, rather than only focusing on the white/African American color line, it shows that critically important variations have mattered where American Indians, Asian Americans, Latina/os, and ‘white ethnics’ are concerned.”-David Roediger, author of How Race Survived U.S. History: From Settlement and Slavery to the Obama Phenomenon “[A]ll fourteen essays in Racially Writing the Republic are boldly written, insightful, and thought provoking. . . . The history of the American republic, as racially written, ignores much of the multiracial contributions of non-Europeans. It also reconstructs an American identity through white hierarchical lens where meritocracy and equality of opportunity are uncontested. Racially Writing the Republic reminds us of America’s shortcomings, if not the failure, of such an identity.” - James D. Ward (Journal of American Ethnic History) “I have no hesitation in wholeheartedly recommending this wide-ranging analysis of the ‘racial writing’ of America to scholars and students within American Studies, Political Science, History, Race and Ethnicity and Sociology. I believe it is a welcome and significant addition to a growing body of literature on the critical analysis of racial formations.” - Rachel L. Finn (Ethnic and Racial Studies) “In bringing together in one volume new readings of classical political theory and explorations of protest thought historically excluded from the canon, this book will serve multiple readerships. . . . The book is a bold attempt to move the academic center to the left and disrupt the traditional ways we have come to conceive of both American studies and political thought.” - Shani Mott (Journal of American History)

• Acknowledgments ixIntroduction 1George Washington: Porcelain, Tea, and Revolution / John Kou Wei Tchen 26Jefferson's Legacies: Racial Intimacies and American Identity / Duchess Harris and Bruce Baum 44Tocqueville and Beaumont, Brothers, and Others / Laura Janara 64"The Sacred Right of Self-Preservation": Juan Nepomuceno Cortina and the Struggle for Justice in Texas / Jerry Thompson 81"Shoot Mr. Lincoln"? / Catherine A. Holland 96Sarah Winnemucca and the Rewriting of Nation / Cari M. Carpenter 112The Politics of the Possible: Ida B. Wells-Barnett's Crusade for Justice / Patricia A. Schechter 128Meat vs. Rice (and Pasta): Samuel Gompers and the Republic of White Labor / Gwendolyn Mink, Abridged by Bruce Baum 145Theodore Roosevelt and the Divided Character of American Nationalism / Gary Gerstle 163Margaret Sanger and the Racial Origins of the Birth Control Movement / Dorothy Roberts 196W. E. B. Du Bois and the Race Concept / Joel Olson 214Displacing Filipinos, Dislocating America: Carlos Bolusan's America Is in the Heart 231Looking Through Sideny Brustein's Window: Lorraine Hansberry's New Frontier, 1959–1965 / Ben Keppel 247James Baldwin's "Discovery of What It Means to Be an American" / Bruce Baum 263Afterword: Racially Writing the Republic and racially Righting the Republic / George Lipsitz 281Bibliography 301Contributors 321Index 323