In the late 1960s identity politics emerged on the political landscape and challenged prevailing ideas about social justice. These politics brought forth a new attention to social identity, an attention that continues to divide people today. While previous studies have focused on the political movements of this period, they have neglected the conceptual prehistory of this political turn. Linda Nicholson's engaging book situates this critical moment in its historical framework, analyzing the concepts and traditions of racial and gender identity that can be traced back to late eighteenth-century Europe and America. She examines how changing ideas about social identity over the last several centuries both helped and hindered successive social movements, and explores the consequences of this historical legacy for the women's and black movements of the 1960s. This insightful study will be of particular interest to students and scholars of political history, identity politics and US history.
Author(s): Linda Nicholson
Series: Cambridge Cultural Social Studies
Edition: 1
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 204
Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 4
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Acknowledgements......Page 10
Introduction......Page 11
1 The politics of identity: race and sex before the twentieth century......Page 19
Race, nature, and nation......Page 21
Sex, nature, and the family......Page 30
Conclusion......Page 43
Introduction to chapters 2 and 3......Page 45
2 Freud and the rise of the psychological self......Page 48
The challenge of Freud: the commonality of desire......Page 52
The play between desire and the environment......Page 59
Implications for identity......Page 64
Conclusion......Page 73
3 The culture concept and social identity......Page 75
The evolution of the attack on social evolution......Page 79
“Culture” and its social implications......Page 92
Conclusion......Page 100
Introduction to chapters 4 and 5......Page 102
4 Before Black Power: constructing an African American identity......Page 104
Mainstream perspectives on the idea of black identity in the early twentieth century......Page 107
Constructing an African American identity: Part I......Page 113
Constructing an African American identity: Part II......Page 131
Black Power......Page 139
5 Women's identity/women's politics......Page 149
Public life and women's identity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries......Page 152
Women's work and women's identity......Page 161
The rise of feminism......Page 171
From women's rights to women's identity......Page 177
Conclusion......Page 184
Epilogue: identity politics forty years later: assessing their value......Page 186
Index......Page 197
