Videri - User contributions [en]

File:Rhetoric of Freedom.jpg

2013-10-30T21:17:02Z

Chris92021:

Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom: The Exodus Narrative in America's Struggle for Civil Rights

2013-10-30T21:16:30Z

Chris92021:

{{Infobox book
| name = Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom: The Exodus Narrative in America's Struggle for Civil Rights
| author = Gary Selby
| publisher =Baylor University Press
| pub_date = February 15, 2008
| pages = 225
| isbn = 1602580162
| image = [[File:Rhetoric of Freedom.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
}}
Was Martin Luther King Jr. the black “Moses”? Was the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century analogous to the biblical story found in the book of Exodus? In Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom, Gary S. Selby attempted to answer these questions. Selby explored the correlation between King and the Exodus narrative, especially how many black Americans (especially in the South) felt an emotional connection to the biblical story of Moses leading the enslaved Israelites out of Egypt in Exodus. Selby formed his thesis on close readings of several sermons and speeches King gave from 1955 to 1968. According to Selby, the civil rights movement required a narrative that all black Americans could rally around and in the Exodus narrative, they found it. Black Americans collectively developed their identity during the civil rights movement. All black Americans now needed were someone to lead them to the “Promised Land.” In King, the black community found the leader (or Moses) who pushed and modified this narrative further and harder than anyone else.

Selby dedicated the early portions of the text to build the theoretical framework which his thesis relied on heavily. Selby referenced various scholars like Hayden White, Kenneth Burke, and Clifford Geertz to form this framework. Selby believed that his rhetoric and narrative theory was especially important because it provided rational explanations to the black community of the world they lived in. Selby explained that for the Exodus narrative made sense to the black community because one, the community knew the biblical tale and two, the community saw correlations between the slaves of Israel and themselves. It seemed to Selby, no dominant narrative existed prior to King and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Once the rhetoric and narrative were established, the black community needed was a leader to follow. Enter Martin Luther King, the “black Moses.”

Selby then moved into the early years of King’s career as a civil rights activist, beginning with the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. According to Selby, it was during this moment that King created the correlation between the black community of Montgomery and the enslaved Israelites in Egypt. King spoke of how the black community spent a “long night in captivity” during the first day of the boycott (Selby 27). For Selby, King knew exactly what he said would arouse an emotional reaction from his audience, not just because his audience’s familiarity with the Exodus narrative but rather his audience’s anticipation for a Moses to lead them to the Promised Land. Selby wrote that this new narrative empowered the black community and provided them with a collective identity (Selby 49). The biggest issue was that King had to walk the fine line regarding this narrative. King knew he could not paint an unflattering picture of the whites who lived in Montgomery. If he did, then everything he and other civil rights leaders worked for would be destroyed.

Selby used all of the allegories involved with the Exodus narrative: the freeing of the Israelites, the parting of the Red Sea, and being in the wilderness for an extended period of time. The “Death of Evil” sermon that King gave to his congregation mere months prior to the Montgomery Bus Boycott provided Selby with the genesis of his thesis regarding the Exodus narrative. This chapter would be one of the stronger points of his book. In this section, Selby wrote that King “attempted to the kind of symbolic, interpretative framework that would be a crucial element in the emergence of the movement” (Selby 52). Selby believed that King saw the storm coming and prepared for the black community for the storm by providing the rhetoric that would serve as the collective narrative of the civil rights movement. This made King look like a genius or clairvoyant. Who could have imagined that King would have been prepared for the Montgomery Bus Boycott before it even occurred? Not only that, how could King and other leaders foresee the black community waiting out the boycott and draining the economic health of Montgomery dry as they did?

Later chapters of the text would also take a closer reading of King’s sermons and speeches, including the final one he gave the day before his death in 3 April 1968. In that speech, King told his audience (striking sanitation workers in Memphis) that he has been to the “mountaintop” (Selby 116). Much like Moses, who saw the Promised Land from the top of Mount Nebo, King never set foot on the Promised Land of racial justice, being killed by an assassin in April 1968. At first glance, one could surmise that the Exodus narrative only fits as perfectly as it did for Selby because of King’s untimely death, thus he, like Moses, never experienced the Promised Land.

Another question that needed an answer would be King himself. Could anyone else besides King used the same rhetoric and narrative to rally the black community just as successfully? Selby would argue no. King’s charisma would be an influencing factor in the movement. While other leaders of the community like Ralph David Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth worked hard to galvanize and rally the black community, only King could lead the movement. No one could be Moses but King. It could only be him and no one else.

While Selby’s monograph had some intriguing ideas, it had some issues that concerned the reader. Selby oversimplified very complex people and insinuated that these actors like King were actually actors. It seemed at times that Selby portrayed the black community as monolithic. Any resistance to King’s rhetoric could not possibly come from within the black community but rather outside forces (mostly white). Also, not everyone would agree that the black community is out of the “wilderness” just yet. Race relations since King’s death might be much stronger and agreeable but to say the country has reached the “mountaintop” might be premature. Selby does not really do well in discussing the liberty theology which changed over time. For Selby, the Exodus narrative had been around since the antebellum period (Selby 34-35). One narrative that Selby did not discuss in too much detail would be the story of everlasting life in heaven. Many slaves believed that they would attain freedom through death and gain everlasting life in heaven as mentioned in the Bible. That was one narrative that slaves often turned to in the antebellum period. While Selby has a point about the timelessness of the Exodus narrative, other narratives mentioned more prominently might have taken away from his thesis.

Another issue would be the media coverage involving the civil rights movement. While Selby does not make any claims that the Exodus narrative to be the primary factor in the success of the civil rights movement, he does not make any strong claims regarding media’s role in the movement either. While a dominant narrative was necessary, the role that television had in the civil rights movement cannot be understated. Without television, the civil rights movement likely could not be as successful as it was. The overall message might be important but it means nothing with an effective delivery method.

Overall, Selby’s work made a contribution to the already extensive historiography of Martin Luther King. This thesis regarding the Exodus narrative and its correlation to the civil rights movement were quite intriguing. However, time will tell if its contribution will be ephemeral or everlasting.

Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom: The Exodus Narrative in America's Struggle for Civil Rights

2013-10-30T21:15:19Z

Chris92021:

{{Infobox book
| name = Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom: The Exodus Narrative in America's Struggle for Civil Rights
| author = Gary Selby
| publisher =Baylor University Press
| pub_date = February 15, 2008
| pages = 225
| isbn = 1602580162
| image = [[File:My Blue Heaven.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
}}
Was Martin Luther King Jr. the black “Moses”? Was the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century analogous to the biblical story found in the book of Exodus? In Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom, Gary S. Selby attempted to answer these questions. Selby explored the correlation between King and the Exodus narrative, especially how many black Americans (especially in the South) felt an emotional connection to the biblical story of Moses leading the enslaved Israelites out of Egypt in Exodus. Selby formed his thesis on close readings of several sermons and speeches King gave from 1955 to 1968. According to Selby, the civil rights movement required a narrative that all black Americans could rally around and in the Exodus narrative, they found it. Black Americans collectively developed their identity during the civil rights movement. All black Americans now needed were someone to lead them to the “Promised Land.” In King, the black community found the leader (or Moses) who pushed and modified this narrative further and harder than anyone else.

Selby dedicated the early portions of the text to build the theoretical framework which his thesis relied on heavily. Selby referenced various scholars like Hayden White, Kenneth Burke, and Clifford Geertz to form this framework. Selby believed that his rhetoric and narrative theory was especially important because it provided rational explanations to the black community of the world they lived in. Selby explained that for the Exodus narrative made sense to the black community because one, the community knew the biblical tale and two, the community saw correlations between the slaves of Israel and themselves. It seemed to Selby, no dominant narrative existed prior to King and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Once the rhetoric and narrative were established, the black community needed was a leader to follow. Enter Martin Luther King, the “black Moses.”

Selby then moved into the early years of King’s career as a civil rights activist, beginning with the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. According to Selby, it was during this moment that King created the correlation between the black community of Montgomery and the enslaved Israelites in Egypt. King spoke of how the black community spent a “long night in captivity” during the first day of the boycott (Selby 27). For Selby, King knew exactly what he said would arouse an emotional reaction from his audience, not just because his audience’s familiarity with the Exodus narrative but rather his audience’s anticipation for a Moses to lead them to the Promised Land. Selby wrote that this new narrative empowered the black community and provided them with a collective identity (Selby 49). The biggest issue was that King had to walk the fine line regarding this narrative. King knew he could not paint an unflattering picture of the whites who lived in Montgomery. If he did, then everything he and other civil rights leaders worked for would be destroyed.

Selby used all of the allegories involved with the Exodus narrative: the freeing of the Israelites, the parting of the Red Sea, and being in the wilderness for an extended period of time. The “Death of Evil” sermon that King gave to his congregation mere months prior to the Montgomery Bus Boycott provided Selby with the genesis of his thesis regarding the Exodus narrative. This chapter would be one of the stronger points of his book. In this section, Selby wrote that King “attempted to the kind of symbolic, interpretative framework that would be a crucial element in the emergence of the movement” (Selby 52). Selby believed that King saw the storm coming and prepared for the black community for the storm by providing the rhetoric that would serve as the collective narrative of the civil rights movement. This made King look like a genius or clairvoyant. Who could have imagined that King would have been prepared for the Montgomery Bus Boycott before it even occurred? Not only that, how could King and other leaders foresee the black community waiting out the boycott and draining the economic health of Montgomery dry as they did?

Later chapters of the text would also take a closer reading of King’s sermons and speeches, including the final one he gave the day before his death in 3 April 1968. In that speech, King told his audience (striking sanitation workers in Memphis) that he has been to the “mountaintop” (Selby 116). Much like Moses, who saw the Promised Land from the top of Mount Nebo, King never set foot on the Promised Land of racial justice, being killed by an assassin in April 1968. At first glance, one could surmise that the Exodus narrative only fits as perfectly as it did for Selby because of King’s untimely death, thus he, like Moses, never experienced the Promised Land.

Another question that needed an answer would be King himself. Could anyone else besides King used the same rhetoric and narrative to rally the black community just as successfully? Selby would argue no. King’s charisma would be an influencing factor in the movement. While other leaders of the community like Ralph David Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth worked hard to galvanize and rally the black community, only King could lead the movement. No one could be Moses but King. It could only be him and no one else.

While Selby’s monograph had some intriguing ideas, it had some issues that concerned the reader. Selby oversimplified very complex people and insinuated that these actors like King were actually actors. It seemed at times that Selby portrayed the black community as monolithic. Any resistance to King’s rhetoric could not possibly come from within the black community but rather outside forces (mostly white). Also, not everyone would agree that the black community is out of the “wilderness” just yet. Race relations since King’s death might be much stronger and agreeable but to say the country has reached the “mountaintop” might be premature. Selby does not really do well in discussing the liberty theology which changed over time. For Selby, the Exodus narrative had been around since the antebellum period (Selby 34-35). One narrative that Selby did not discuss in too much detail would be the story of everlasting life in heaven. Many slaves believed that they would attain freedom through death and gain everlasting life in heaven as mentioned in the Bible. That was one narrative that slaves often turned to in the antebellum period. While Selby has a point about the timelessness of the Exodus narrative, other narratives mentioned more prominently might have taken away from his thesis.

Another issue would be the media coverage involving the civil rights movement. While Selby does not make any claims that the Exodus narrative to be the primary factor in the success of the civil rights movement, he does not make any strong claims regarding media’s role in the movement either. While a dominant narrative was necessary, the role that television had in the civil rights movement cannot be understated. Without television, the civil rights movement likely could not be as successful as it was. The overall message might be important but it means nothing with an effective delivery method.

Overall, Selby’s work made a contribution to the already extensive historiography of Martin Luther King. This thesis regarding the Exodus narrative and its correlation to the civil rights movement were quite intriguing. However, time will tell if its contribution will be ephemeral or everlasting.

Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom: The Exodus Narrative in America's Struggle for Civil Rights

2013-10-30T21:14:41Z

Chris92021: Created page with "{{Infobox book | name = Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom: The Exodus Narrative in America's Struggle for Civil Rights | author = Gary Selby | ..."

{{Infobox book
| name = Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom: The Exodus Narrative in America's Struggle for Civil Rights
| author = Gary Selby
| publisher =Baylor University Press
| pub_date = February 15, 2008
| pages = 225
| isbn = 1602580162
| image = [[File:My Blue Heaven.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]

Was Martin Luther King Jr. the black “Moses”? Was the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century analogous to the biblical story found in the book of Exodus? In Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom, Gary S. Selby attempted to answer these questions. Selby explored the correlation between King and the Exodus narrative, especially how many black Americans (especially in the South) felt an emotional connection to the biblical story of Moses leading the enslaved Israelites out of Egypt in Exodus. Selby formed his thesis on close readings of several sermons and speeches King gave from 1955 to 1968. According to Selby, the civil rights movement required a narrative that all black Americans could rally around and in the Exodus narrative, they found it. Black Americans collectively developed their identity during the civil rights movement. All black Americans now needed were someone to lead them to the “Promised Land.” In King, the black community found the leader (or Moses) who pushed and modified this narrative further and harder than anyone else.

Selby dedicated the early portions of the text to build the theoretical framework which his thesis relied on heavily. Selby referenced various scholars like Hayden White, Kenneth Burke, and Clifford Geertz to form this framework. Selby believed that his rhetoric and narrative theory was especially important because it provided rational explanations to the black community of the world they lived in. Selby explained that for the Exodus narrative made sense to the black community because one, the community knew the biblical tale and two, the community saw correlations between the slaves of Israel and themselves. It seemed to Selby, no dominant narrative existed prior to King and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Once the rhetoric and narrative were established, the black community needed was a leader to follow. Enter Martin Luther King, the “black Moses.”

Selby then moved into the early years of King’s career as a civil rights activist, beginning with the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. According to Selby, it was during this moment that King created the correlation between the black community of Montgomery and the enslaved Israelites in Egypt. King spoke of how the black community spent a “long night in captivity” during the first day of the boycott (Selby 27). For Selby, King knew exactly what he said would arouse an emotional reaction from his audience, not just because his audience’s familiarity with the Exodus narrative but rather his audience’s anticipation for a Moses to lead them to the Promised Land. Selby wrote that this new narrative empowered the black community and provided them with a collective identity (Selby 49). The biggest issue was that King had to walk the fine line regarding this narrative. King knew he could not paint an unflattering picture of the whites who lived in Montgomery. If he did, then everything he and other civil rights leaders worked for would be destroyed.

Selby used all of the allegories involved with the Exodus narrative: the freeing of the Israelites, the parting of the Red Sea, and being in the wilderness for an extended period of time. The “Death of Evil” sermon that King gave to his congregation mere months prior to the Montgomery Bus Boycott provided Selby with the genesis of his thesis regarding the Exodus narrative. This chapter would be one of the stronger points of his book. In this section, Selby wrote that King “attempted to the kind of symbolic, interpretative framework that would be a crucial element in the emergence of the movement” (Selby 52). Selby believed that King saw the storm coming and prepared for the black community for the storm by providing the rhetoric that would serve as the collective narrative of the civil rights movement. This made King look like a genius or clairvoyant. Who could have imagined that King would have been prepared for the Montgomery Bus Boycott before it even occurred? Not only that, how could King and other leaders foresee the black community waiting out the boycott and draining the economic health of Montgomery dry as they did?

Later chapters of the text would also take a closer reading of King’s sermons and speeches, including the final one he gave the day before his death in 3 April 1968. In that speech, King told his audience (striking sanitation workers in Memphis) that he has been to the “mountaintop” (Selby 116). Much like Moses, who saw the Promised Land from the top of Mount Nebo, King never set foot on the Promised Land of racial justice, being killed by an assassin in April 1968. At first glance, one could surmise that the Exodus narrative only fits as perfectly as it did for Selby because of King’s untimely death, thus he, like Moses, never experienced the Promised Land.

Another question that needed an answer would be King himself. Could anyone else besides King used the same rhetoric and narrative to rally the black community just as successfully? Selby would argue no. King’s charisma would be an influencing factor in the movement. While other leaders of the community like Ralph David Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth worked hard to galvanize and rally the black community, only King could lead the movement. No one could be Moses but King. It could only be him and no one else.

While Selby’s monograph had some intriguing ideas, it had some issues that concerned the reader. Selby oversimplified very complex people and insinuated that these actors like King were actually actors. It seemed at times that Selby portrayed the black community as monolithic. Any resistance to King’s rhetoric could not possibly come from within the black community but rather outside forces (mostly white). Also, not everyone would agree that the black community is out of the “wilderness” just yet. Race relations since King’s death might be much stronger and agreeable but to say the country has reached the “mountaintop” might be premature. Selby does not really do well in discussing the liberty theology which changed over time. For Selby, the Exodus narrative had been around since the antebellum period (Selby 34-35). One narrative that Selby did not discuss in too much detail would be the story of everlasting life in heaven. Many slaves believed that they would attain freedom through death and gain everlasting life in heaven as mentioned in the Bible. That was one narrative that slaves often turned to in the antebellum period. While Selby has a point about the timelessness of the Exodus narrative, other narratives mentioned more prominently might have taken away from his thesis.

Another issue would be the media coverage involving the civil rights movement. While Selby does not make any claims that the Exodus narrative to be the primary factor in the success of the civil rights movement, he does not make any strong claims regarding media’s role in the movement either. While a dominant narrative was necessary, the role that television had in the civil rights movement cannot be understated. Without television, the civil rights movement likely could not be as successful as it was. The overall message might be important but it means nothing with an effective delivery method.

Overall, Selby’s work made a contribution to the already extensive historiography of Martin Luther King. This thesis regarding the Exodus narrative and its correlation to the civil rights movement were quite intriguing. However, time will tell if its contribution will be ephemeral or everlasting.

Twentieth Century United States

2013-10-30T07:12:37Z

Chris92021:

==Book Summaries==
* Donna Alvah. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/women-and-children-first-the-importance-of-gender-and-military-families-in-the-cold-war-era/ Unofficial Ambassadors: American Military Families Overseas and the Cold War, 1946-1965] (2007).
* Alex Cummings. [[Here's How to Make a New Page: The Revenge, 1955-1957|Here's How to Make a New Page]] (2013).
* Luis Alvarez. [[The Power of the Zoot|The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II]] (2008).
* Karen Anderson. [[Wartime Women|Wartime Women: Sex Roles, Family Relations, and the Status of Women During World War II]] (1981).
* Eric Avila. [[Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight|Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles]] (2004).
* Beth Bailey. [[America’s Army|America’s Army: Making the All-Volunteer Force]] (2009).
* Beth Bailey & David Farber. [[The First Strange Place|The First Strange Place: The Alchemy of Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii]] (1992).
* Beth Bailey. [[From Front Porch to Back Seat|From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth-Century America]] (1989).
* Mark Brilliant. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/californication-race-ethnicity-and-unity-in-twentieth-century-california/ Californication: Race, Ethnicity, and Unity in Twentieth Century California] (2012).
* Amy Bridges. [[Morning Glories]] (1999).
* Laura Briggs. [[Reproducing Empire|Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico]] (2002).
* Alan Brinkley. [[Voices of Protest|Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, & the Great Depression]] (1983).
* Charlotte Brooks. [[Alien Neighbors, Foreign Friends|Alien Neighbors, Foreign Friends: Asian Americans, Housing, and the Transformation of Urban California]] (2009).
* Robert Caro. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/dog-days-classics-robert-caros-controversial-portrait-of-robert-moses-and-new-york/ The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York](1974)
* Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/dog-days-classics-political-boss-and-midwestern-pharaoh-richard-j-daleys-chicago-legacy/ American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley - His Battle for the Nation and Chicago] (2001)
* Lizabeth Cohen. [[A Consumers’ Republic|A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America]] (2003).
* Lizabeth Cohen. [[Making a New Deal|Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939]] (2008).
* Nancy F. Cott. [[Public Vows|Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation]] (2002).
* Pete Daniel, [[Lost Revolutions|Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950s]] (2000)
* Mike Davis. [[City of Quartz|City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles]] (2006).
* Mike Davis & Michael Sprinker. [[Magical Urbanism|Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the US Big City]] (2001).
* Michael J. Dear. [[The Postmodern Urban Condition]] (2001).
* Robert C. Donnelly. [[Dark Rose]] (2011).
* Steven Erie. [[Globalizing L.A.|Globalizing L.A.: Trade, Infrastructure, and Regional Development]] (2004).
* Steven P. Erie. [[Beyond Chinatown|Beyond Chinatown: The Metropolitan Water District, Growth, and the Environment in Southern California]] (2006).
* Elizabeth Ewen. [[Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars]] (1985).
* Barbara Ferman. [[Challenging the Growth Machine|Challenging the Growth Machine: Neighborhood Politics in Chicago and Pittsburgh]] (1996).
* John M. Findlay. [[Magic Lands|Magic Lands: Western Cityscapes and American Culture After 1940]] (1993).
* Steven Gregory. [[Black Corona|Black Corona: Race and the Politics of Place in an Urban Community]] (1999).
* Jason Hackworth. [[The Neoliberal City|The Neoliberal City: Governance, Ideology, and Development in American Urbanism]] (2006).
* William Ivy Hair. [[Carnival of Fury|Carnival of Fury: Robert Charles and the New Orleans Race Riot of 1900]] (2008).
* Chester W. Hartman. [[Yerba Buena|Yerba Buena: land grab and community resistance in San Francisco,]] (1974).
* Georgina Hickey. [[Hope and Danger in the New South City|Hope and Danger in the New South City: Working-Class Women and Urban Development in Atlanta, 1890-1940]] (2005).
* Richard Hofstadter. [[The American Political Tradition|The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made it]] (1989).
* Daniel Horowitz. [[Betty Friedan and the Making of “The Feminine Mystique”|Betty Friedan and the Making of “The Feminine Mystique”: The American Left, the Cold War, and Modern Feminism]] (2000).
* Daniel Martinez HoSang. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/erasing-race-whiteness-california-and-the-colorblind-bind/ Racial Propositions: Ballot Initiatives and the Making of Postwar California](2010)
* Jonathan Hughes (Editor)& Simon Sadler (Editor).[[Non-Plan|Non-Plan: Essays on Freedom, Participation and Change in Modern Architecture and Urbanism]] (2000).
* Daniel Hurewitz. [[Bohemian Los Angeles|Bohemian Los Angeles: and the Making of Modern Politics]] (2007).
* Marilynn S. Johnson. [[The Second Gold Rush|The Second Gold Rush: Oakland and the East Bay in World War II]] (1994).
* Tony Judt. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/neoliberalisms-license-to-ill/ Ill Fares the Land] (2011).
* Larry D. Kramer. [[The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review]] (2004).
* Joel Kotkin. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/americas-ace-in-the-hole-is-of-course-its-awesomeness/ The Next Hundred Million:America in 2050] (2010)
* Kevin M. Kruse. [[White Flight|White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism]] (2007).
* Matthew D. Lassiter. [[The Silent Majority|The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South]] (2007).
* William R. Leach. [[Land of Desire|Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture]] (1994).
* Michael F. Logan. [[Fighting Sprawl and City Hall|Fighting Sprawl and City Hall: Resistance to Urban Growth in the Southwest]] (1995).
* Roger W. Lotchin. [[Fortress California, 1910-1961|Fortress California, 1910-1961: From Warfare to Welfare]] (2002).
* Lisa Lowe. [[Immigrant Acts|Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics]] (1996).
* Robert S. Lynd & Helen Merrell Lynd. [[Middletown|Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture]] (1959).
* Catherine Lutz. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/3187/ Homefront: A Military City and the American 20th Century] (2001).
* Nancy MacLean. [[Freedom Is Not Enough|Freedom Is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace]] (2008).
* Isaac Martin. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/stalking-the-tax-man-the-pervasive-influence-of-the-property-tax-revolt/ The Permanent Tax Revolt: How Property Tax Transformed America] (2008).
* Douglas Massey & Nancy Denton. [[American Apartheid|American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass]] (1993).
* Carol Lynn McKibben. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/3187/ Racial Beachhead: Diversity and Democracy in a Military Town] (2012).
* Lisa McGirr. [[Suburban Warriors|Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right]] (2002).
* James Miller. [[Flowers in the Dustbin|Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977]] (2000).
* Glen M. Mimura. [[Ghostlife of the Third Cinema|Ghostlife of Third Cinema: Asian American Film and Video]] (2009).
* John Hull Mollenkopf. [[The Contested City]] (1983).
* Maggi M. Morehouse. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/double-victory-from-wwii-to-the-avf-african-americans-and-the-u-s-military/ Fighting in the Jim Crow Army: Black Man and Women Remember World War II] (2000).
* Edward P. Morgan. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/a-mediating-mess-how-american-post-wwii-media-undermined-democracy/ What Really Happened to the Sixties: How Mass Media Culture Failed American Democracy] (2011)
* Charles Moskos Jr. and John Sibley Butler. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/double-victory-from-wwii-to-the-avf-african-americans-and-the-u-s-military/ All That We Can Be: Black Leadership and Racial Integration the Army Way] (1996).
* Andrew H. Myers. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/3187/ Black, White, and Olive Drab: Racial Integration at Fort Jackson, South Carolina and the Civil Rights Movement] (2006).
* Armando Navarro. [[The Cristal Experiment|The Cristal Experiment: A Chicano Struggle for Community Control]] (1998).
* Becky M. Nicolaides. [[My Blue Heaven|My Blue Heaven: Life and Politics in the Working-Class Suburbs of Los Angeles, 1920-1965]] (2002).
* Margaret Pugh O’Mara. [[Cities of Knowledge|Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley]] (2004).
* Gilbert Osofsky. [[Harlem|Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto : Negro New York, 1890-1930]] (1996).
* Rick Perlstein. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/essence-precedes-existence-the-problem-of-identity-politics-in-hurewitzs-bohemian-la/ Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America](2009).
* Rebecca Jo Plant. [[Mom|Mom: The Transformation of Motherhood in Modern America]] (2012).
* Daniel T. Rodgers. [[Contested Truths|Contested Truths: Keywords in American Politics Since Independence]] (1998).
* David Roediger. [http://tropicsofmeta.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/dog-days-classics-the-wages-of-whiteness-and-the-white-people-who-love-them/ The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class] (1991).
* Adam Rome. [[The Bulldozer in the Countryside|The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism]] (2001).
* Richard Ronald. [[The Ideology of Home Ownership|The Ideology of Home Ownership: Homeowner Societies and the Role of Housing]] (2008).
* Peter Henry Rossi & Robert A. Dentler. [[The Politics of Urban Renewal|The Politics of Urban Renewal: The Chicago Findings]] (1981).
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