© Columbia University Press
The Education of Booker T. Washington: American Democracy and the Idea of Race Relations
Paper, 296 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13049-3
$24.50
/ £14.50
February, 2006
Cloth, 296 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13048-6
$32.00
/ £19.00
"Illuminating... West's study stands out for its innovative argument as well as the author's deep personal investment." — Publishers Weekly
"The author offers interesting assessments of other commentators on race... Significant ideas." — Kirkus
"West's reflections offer fresh considerations on the complex consequences of American racism." — Library Journal
"Recommended." — Choice
"One of the most important books on Washington and on black thought in recent years." — W. Fitzhugh Brundage, The Journal of American History
"This is a book that must be read." — Gregory Mixon, American Historical Review
"An important work." — Mia Roth, The European Legacy
"West's sense of Washington as something of a visionary makes for very stimulating reading. His book has the character of a deep meditation, with significant historical insight, on how we have thought—and thought wrongly—not only about Washington, but about race more generally." — Steven Hahn, University of Pennsylvania, author of A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration
"For too long, scholars have approached 'race relations' as a fact. Michael R. West investigates it as an idea: the idea of resolving the contradiction between the Jim Crow system and democracy by substituting 'good race relations' for democracy. Identifying Booker T. Washington as an idealist, West traces Washington's idea-race relations-from its origin in his Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction experience to its survival and prestige among scholars today." — Barbara J. Fields, Columbia University, coauthor of Slaves No More: Three Essays on Emancipation and the Civil War