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Class, Race, and the US South. American Politics and Society through the Lens of Michael Goldfield’s Work

Buy hardcover (Brill)
Published Oct 2025

Cody R. Melcher, Olivier Maheo, and Esther Cyna

Volume Editors: Cody R. Melcher, Olivier Maheo, and Esther Cyna
Class, Race, and the US South, a Festschrift for labour militant and political scientist Michael Goldfield, features original contributions from the most prominent contemporary historical-materialist social scientists and historians. The collection’s uniting theme is that class, race, and the South are the most important mainsprings of American society. Combining labour history, southern history, and theoretical critiques of mainstream conceptualisations of racism, this work emphasises the working class as the primary driver of both reactionary and potentially revolutionary change.

Biographical Note

Cody R. Melcher, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of sociology at Loyola University New Orleans, and an instructor in the prison education program at Rayburn Correctional Center in Angie, Louisiana. His published work focuses primarily on the intersection of race and class in American public opinion and political behaviour.

Olivier Maheo, Ph.D., is an associate member of the Institut d’histoire du temps présent, University of Paris 8 / CNRS, France. He conducts research on the uses of the past and counter-narratives of race, focusing on African-American history.

Esther Cyna, Ph.D., is an associate professor of US history and society at the University of Versailles, Paris-Saclay, France. Her research examines racism in school finance in the US South from the nineteenth century to today.

Readership

This book is especially relevant to anyone interested in the history of labor, the U.S. South, and contemporary discussions on race, racism, and white supremacy in the United States. It will appeal to labor activists, anti-racism activists, southern historians, labor historians, and scholars of race in the U.S.

Table of Contents

Preface
Donna Kesselman
Editor’s Introduction
Cody R. Melcher
List of Figures

Part 1 Applications of Goldfield’s Theoretical Framework

1 The Theoretical and Political Limits of ‘White Skin Privilege’: Advantages, Benefits, Privileges, and Bribes
Michael Goldfield

2 Class, Race, and Capitalism: Contemporary Perspectives
Alex Callinicos

3 Goldfield’s Oeuvre: A Critical Engagement
Bryan D. Palmer

4 White Supremacy as a Decommodification Strategy: The Sociology of Race, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the Scholars Denied
Cody R. Melcher

Part 2 Interactions and Intersections

5 The World War II ‘No Strike Pledge’, Anti-Black ‘Hate Strikes’, and Racial Divisions in the CIO
Charles Post

6 The United Steel Workers of America: African Americans and McCarthyism, 1945–1955
Olivier Maheo

7 Claiming Power: Race, Gender, and the Successes of the 1968 Statewide Florida Teachers’ Strike
Jody Noll

Part 3 (Re)Defining/(Re)Thinking the South

8 Segregation and Music Consumption: Rethinking the North/South Distinction through Old-Time and Race Music
Manuel Bocquier

9 A Return Home or a Yankee Invasion? Reverse Migration to the South Since the 1970s and the Regionalization of Black Identity
Nicolaus Raulin

10 Using Michael Goldfield’s Approach to Examine the American Southwest
Dan La Botz

Part 4 Mobilizing Workers: Labour and Race

11 ‘Storm Beyond Control’: Black Workers, the Republican Party, and Class Conflict in Reconstruction South Carolina
Brian Kelly

12 Capital Reconciliation: Anti-Workerism and Evansville’s 1899 Blue-Gray Reunion
Matthew E. Stanley

13 Electoral Strategy as a Union Swan Song? The Case Study of the Oklahoma Teachers’ Walkout in 2018
Marie A. Ménard

14 ‘You are the Opinion-Makers in the Community’: Understanding the Power and Limits of Black Disc Jockeys Organising in the 1960s
Tristan Pinet-Le Bras

Part 5 A Final Word

15 My Long Journey: A Political and Intellectual Retrospective
Michael Goldfield