The World Is a Ghetto: Race and Democracy Since World War II

"The World is a Ghetto: Race and Democracy since World War II" attempts to explore why and how racial discrimination is not only present today, but one of the world's leading problems. The author, Howard Winant (professor of sociology at Temple University), is a powerful social activist and who's family were Holocaust refugees. Winant fills his book with both his determination and extensive research to support his cases of why racial injustice is still a major issue today and how it came to be. Race is placed into a context that must be examined through labor processes, democracy, and economic influences. Through this, Winant is able to describe we view ourselves and how residents the world views each other. The book breaks up into two main parts. The first is created to help the reader understand the comings of race and how it has been molded to the form it exists today. This part of the book is more sociology then history. The second part focuses on four main case studies; the United States, South Africa, Brazil, and Europe. These case studies have a strong focus on post World War II history, but does make reference to earlier times were needed. In each of the case studies, Winant sets the stage for each country/region, explores the major "break's" how, what, when, and why, and finally attempts to understand where these stories may lead. There is a strong trend through the book for Winant to tell the reader what he is going to do, do it, then tell the reader what he did. This writing also quotes as well as references to a lot of previous author's works. The book can be extremely thick at time, philosophical and language wise. You may want to read a dictionary along with this.

This book is for anyone bothered by the hard questions about race: Why is race both invisible and so evident in the large and small details of our lives? How did racism become, in only several recent decades, morally and culturally repugnant, but at the same time we seem unable to deal with or recognize its obvious effects? How have we come to entrust leaders with the decision whether equality has gone "too far" who opposed it from it's beginnings (such as the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who opposed the Brown v. Board of Education decision integrating the schools)? Why do we look at racial issues and history so provincially, rather than taking a much more revealing global focus? Winant explains all this and more. It's a must read for anyone who cares about race, equality or democracy.

I bought this book because I was having trouble with the current race scene in the U.S. Too many black people locked up, too much racial inequality, too many cops killing blacks. Winant puts racism in a historical and international context I had not thought of before. This book shows why the world is in a new stage of racial (and racist) history now, both in America and elsewhere. Destined to be a classic!