Separate and Unequal, Steven M Gillon
Separate and Unequal, Steven M Gillon
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Separate and Unequal
The Kerner Commission and the Unraveling of American Liberalism

Author: Steven M Gillon

Narrator: Ryan Vincent Anderson

Unabridged: 12 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 03/06/2018

Synopsis

From a New York Times bestselling author, the definitive history of the Kerner Commission, whose report on urban unrest reshaped American debates about race and inequality

In Separate and Unequal, New York Times bestselling historian Steven M. Gillon offers a revelatory new history of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders -- popularly known as the Kerner Commission. Convened by President Lyndon Johnson after riots in Newark and Detroit left dozens dead and thousands injured, the commission issued a report in 1968 that attributed the unrest to "white racism" and called for aggressive new programs to end discrimination and poverty. "Our nation is moving toward two societies," it warned, "one black, and one white -- separate and unequal."

Johnson refused to accept the Kerner Report, and as his political coalition unraveled, its proposals went nowhere. For the right, the report became a symbol of liberal excess, and for the left, one of opportunities lost. Separate and Unequal is essential for anyone seeking to understand the fraught politics of race in America.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Nia on March 10, 2019

How sad that the contents and conclusions of this report are still relevant, and still ignored, today, 50 years after it was released in response to the riots in Newark and Detroit of the “long hot” summer of 1967. I found this book after seeing Dr. King's response to the question, during the Memphi......more

Goodreads review by Johnny on May 10, 2018

A very comprehensive look at the commission LBJ called for after almost 200 uprisings in dozens of American cities. The enduring and diplomatic spirit of the director Ginsburg is well described as he navigated a mixed groups of independents, conservatives and liberals. The machinations of LBJ are do......more

Goodreads review by Kayla on August 19, 2020

An absolute must-read before the election. If you haven't heard about the Kerner Commission (like me two weeks ago) you'll notice it's strikingly familiar to our current racial unrest. The Kerner Commission Report lays out a roadmap to solving systemic racism, Gillon gives an in-depth history lesson......more

Goodreads review by Jim on December 30, 2018

Throughout my professional career, I served at various levels on public panels, commissions, etc. These required defining the mandate, setting the research agenda and conducting it, drawing conclusions, reporting progress, and issuing a final report. It was that experience that drew me to this book.......more

Goodreads review by Joe Costello on July 11, 2018

Though the title says it all, this work could benefit from some first-hand accounts from people within the communities assessed in 1967 and 1968, although this was a fresh take on an otherwise very important set of events in US history.......more

Quotes

"How did a government document that black radicals anticipated would be a whitewash end up instead denouncing 'white racism'? This improbable turn of events animates Steven M. Gillon's deft, incisive, and altogether absorbing history of the Kerner Commission, which he convincingly depicts as 'the last gasp of 1960s liberalism'...Meticulous."—Atlantic

"In Separate and Unequal, Steven M. Gillon...tells the fraught story of the commission, its recommendations and American race relations in the five decades since. His book is sophisticated, fair-minded-and a bracing corrective to complacency about racial reconciliation in America."—Wall Street Journal

"While solutions to poverty and discrimination are far from the national political agenda, the history of the Kerner Report reminds us that liberals and the left can still influence policy from the margins."—Nation

"Boldly written...The hard lesson being driven home by Gillon is that race relations and preservation of social decency are extraordinarily complex problems. They lack simple and immediate reconciliation. The conundrum has only grown since the Kerner Commission."—New York Journal of Books

"[A] compelling new history of the commission.... The Kerner Commission was right about race in America, but its very ambitions enabled the backlash against much of what it hoped to achieve."—Washington Post

"Racism remains a deeply troubling aspect of American history and culture, and Gillon's...excellent history of the 1967-68 National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, more popularly known as the Kerner Commission, provides historical insight on today's political climate...Exceptionally well-researched and timely."—Library Journal (starred review)

"Gillon's research about the Kerner Commission, bolstered by hours of interviews with the surviving members, is extremely well-documented and also offers the feel of being ripped from today's headlines.... Well-rendered popular American history that also speaks to present-day issues."—Kirkus Reviews

"Gillon's thought-provoking look into the Kerner Commission provides great insight into race issues of 1960s America."—Publishers Weekly

"Steven Gillon's timely book, Separate and Unequal, is a compelling reminder that America remains a racially divided country.... Every lawmaker and every fair-minded citizen should read Gillon's history."—Robert Dallek

"Separate and Unequal is an enormously impressive book. Steven Gillon tells a compellingly granular story about the so-called Kerner Commission's inner workings in 1967-1968.... And he employs his formidable story-telling skills to draw out the lasting historical consequences."—David M. Kennedy, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History Emeritus, Stanford University

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