Diverse Nations

George M. Fredrickson is the Edgar E. Robinson Professor of U. S. History (Emeritus) at Stanford. His many books include the prize-winning White Supremacy: A Comparative Study in American and South African History and Racism: A Short History, which has been translated into five languages.

“For more than a generation, George Fredrickson was one of the leading historians of America’s racial theory and practice and one of our leading exponents of comparative history. Diverse Nations reveals how much is to be gained by seeing America’s racial history in an international perspective and confirms George Fredrickson’s eminence in both fields.” —Kwame Anthony Appiah, Princeton University, author of In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture “Fredrickson’s thorough research, original insights, common-sense interpretations, and lucid prose made him a historian’s historian. … A graduate student preparing for a general examination in this field could do no better than to start with [Diverse Nations].” —James M. McPherson, in The New York Review of Books “With a combination of concision, conceptual clarity, and vast learning, George Fredrickson, working on a broad international platform, clarifies and compares the nature of racial and ethnic experiences and policies—in the United States, South Africa, France, and Brazil, with less extended discussions of several other national experiences. There is no better or more fair-minded guide to these issues; Fredrickson’s sharply honed essays are essential reading.” —Thomas Bender, New York University “No one can match the transnational erudition, acuity, and sensitivity that Fredrickson brings to the task. It is a great gift to have so many of Fredrickson’s best essays assembled in one volume, and to be able to encounter the full power and sweep of his historical imagination.” —Gary Gerstle, Vanderbilt University, author of American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century “Because of his authority, all serious students of slavery and race will want to read George Fredrickson’s latest contribution, and those who have not studied these topics in any depth will find this an excellent introduction.” —Robin Blackburn, The New School and the University of Essex, author of The Making of New World Slavery: From the Baroque to the Modern, 1492–1800

• Introduction; Part 1 Perspectives on Ethnoracial Diversity in the United States; Chapter 1 Models of American Ethnic Relations: A Historical Perspective; Chapter 2 The Historical Construction of Race and Citizenship in the United States; Chapter 3 America’s Diversity in Comparative Perspective; Chapter 4 John Higham’s Plural America; Part 2 Slavery and Racism: Historiographic Interventions; Chapter 5 The Skeleton in the Closet; Chapter 6 They’ll Take Their Stand: Davis and Genovese; Chapter 7 America’s Original Sin; Chapter 8 The Long Trek to Freedom; Chapter 9 Redcoat Liberation; Chapter 10 Black Hearts and Monsters of the Mind: Race and Identity in Antebellum America; Chapter 11 Still Separate and Unequal: The Strange Career of Affirmative Action; Part 3 Cross-National Comparisons; Chapter 12 Race and Racism in Historical Perspective: Comparing the United States, South Africa, and Brazil; Chapter 13 Beyond Race? Ideological Color-Blindness in the United States, Brazil, and South Africa; Chapter 14 Diverse Republics: French and American Responses to Racial Pluralism; Chapter 15 Mulattoes and Métis : Attitudes toward Miscegenation in the United States and France since the Seventeenth Century;