[.ca] Motherhood in Black and White: Race and Sex in American ... (ISBN 0801434149)

undeniable intelligence:
This was one of the most eye-opening books I've ever read. I have never seen such articulate and comprehensive arguments made about the parallels and correlations in public policy to race and gender. Feldstein is brilliant and enthralling. I recomend it to anyone who thinks legislation now and in history can be analysied at face value.

smart, smart, smart:
Motherhood in Black and White does what few books on liberalism dare to do-- talk about policy, politics, and psychology as having gendered underpinnings and racial consequences. Feldstein's story is about the good guys, the racial liberals of the age between the New Deal and the Great Society, who optimistically conceive of the state as having a necessary role to play in the eradication of racism and poverty in the US. Yet, even with these laudatory goals, these white hats put into play conservative notions of womanhood to propel civil rights activism and anti-poverty programs forward. Mothers, black and white, needed-- no, were relentlessly compelled by popular culture, psychological experts and political commentators-- to raise healthy, manly, and restrained sons who would grow up to become good citizens, able to be compassionate, assertive, and democratic. Poverty and racism were the consequence of a job poorly done. The tight rope women walked-- be affectionate, but not smothering, be strong but not castrating-- is deftly explored by Feldstein through a range of sources, including Hollywood film, New Deal legislation and The Nation, as well as through characters like Mammy Till Bradley and Betty Friedan. This is not another account of mom- bashing. Masterful, indeed.

Intellectual and Cultural history of the first order:
This history of ideas about motherhood is much more than that: Feldstein argues that the way our culture has represented motherhood tells us a great deal about gender roles, racial politics, and the development of mid-century liberalism generally. To me, the most exciting claim of the book is that many Americans, both black and white, who made liberal arguments for African American civil rights, did so by making conservative arguments about gender. That is, in order to prove that racial differences were not biological or inevitable, social scientists and others tried to prove that racial differences were social and psychological: in particular, they insisted that such differences were caused by the failure of black women to mother their children into properly (white-modeled) citizens. Similarly, when cultural observers wanted to understand white prejudice, they looked to arguments about the role of mothers in raising men who were likely to become fascists, racists, or communists. Feldstein argues that from the 1930s to the 1960s, liberal ideas for racial equality were in some sense _built_ on conservative ideas about the failures of both black and white women to be proper mothers. Women were simultaneously accused of being bad mothers and exhorted to do more mothering -- told this was their highest and most valuable role. Feldstein's argument is fascinating, because she shows us how hard it is to fully separate the "good guys" from the "bad guys" when we study the complexities of American history: liberation in one arena can depend on reinscribing a kind of oppression in another. And the book, while very scholarly, is also an interesting read. The author discusses popular culture (such as the Imitation of Life movies), social movements, and intellectual history in a highly nuanced and yet readable way.