"All around the world," Winant declares, "the momentum of the struggle against racism is stalemated." Joining his personal motivation as a social activist and a child of Holocaust refugees with his training and scholarship, Winant (professor of sociology, Temple University; coauthor, Racial Formation in the United States) aims "to sound a political alarm." Deeply appreciative of W.E.B. Du Bois's prophetic observation that "[t]he problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line," Winant seeks "to explain why race is such an important social fact... at the turn of the 21st century." Ranging from Christopher Columbus's journey to the New World through World War II, he finds "the origins of modern class struggle, nationalism and many democratic movements as well... in struggles over racial rule." He then examines "the contemporary sociology of race" in the U.S., South Africa, Brazil and the European Union following World War II, arguing that old systems of racial domination have been undermined and pointing to the "new instabilities" such changes have brought. Winant's book is dense and sometimes daunting; it would have been a more pleasing read had some of the scholarly paraphernalia been tucked more discreetly into a bibliographical essay and the academic redundancy edited out. Still, it's a groundbreaking book, deeply instructive and thoughtfully provocative. (July)
