Books by Desmond King
Making Americans: Immigration, Race, and the Origins of the Diverse Democracy
by Desmond King
In the nineteenth century, virtually anyone could get into the United States. But by the 1920s, U.S. immigration policy had become a finely filtered regime of selection. Desmond King looks at this dramatic shift, and the debates behind it, for what they reveal about the construction of an "American" identity.
Specifically, the debates in the three decades leading up to 1929 were conceived in terms of desirable versus undesirable immigrants. This not only cemented judgments about specific European groups but reinforced prevailing biases against groups already present in the United States, particularly African Americans, whose inferior status and second-class citizenship--enshrined in Jim Crow laws and embedded in pseudo-scientific arguments about racial classifications--appear to have been consolidated in these decades. Although the values of different groups have always been recognized in the United States, King gives the most thorough account yet of how eugenic arguments were used to establish barriers and to favor an Anglo-Saxon conception of American identity, rejecting claims of other traditions. Thus the immigration controversy emerges here as a significant precursor to recent multicultural debates.
Making Americans shows how the choices made about immigration policy in the 1920s played a fundamental role in shaping democracy and ideas about group rights in America.
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Still a House Divided: Race and Politics in Obama's America (Princeton Studies in American Politics: Historical, International, and Comparative Perspectives, 125)
by Desmond King, Rogers M. Smith
Why race remains the central political issue in America today
Why have American policies failed to reduce the racial inequalities still pervasive throughout the nation? Has President Barack Obama defined new political approaches to race that might spur unity and progress? Still a House Divided examines the enduring divisions of American racial politics and how these conflicts have been shaped by distinct political alliances and their competing race policies. Combining deep historical knowledge with a detailed exploration of such issues as housing, employment, criminal justice, multiracial census categories, immigration, voting in majority-minority districts, and school vouchers, Desmond King and Rogers Smith assess the significance of President Obama's election to the White House and the prospects for achieving constructive racial policies for America's future.
Offering a fresh perspective on the networks of governing institutions, political groups, and political actors that influence the structure of American racial politics, King and Smith identify three distinct periods of opposing racial policy coalitions in American history. The authors investigate how today's alliances pit color-blind and race-conscious approaches against one another, contributing to political polarization and distorted policymaking. Contending that President Obama has so far inadequately confronted partisan divisions over race, the authors call for all sides to recognize the need for a balance of policy measures if America is to ever cease being a nation divided.
Presenting a powerful account of American political alliances and their contending racial agendas, Still a House Divided sheds light on a policy path vital to the country's future.
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Fed Power: How Finance Wins
by Desmond King, Lawrence Jacobs
The Federal Reserve, created nearly a century ago, is the most powerful central bank in the world. The Fed's power, which derives from its ability to alter the money supply and move interest rates, weighs heavily not only on the US economy, but on the world economy as well. Not surprisingly, most scholarship on the Fed has focused on its economic role; however, the Fed's power isn't merely economic but is also political. Since its decisions benefit some economic sectors (and hence interest groups) and not others, it effectively makes political choices when shaping economic policy.
Lawrence R. Jacobs and Desmond King's Fed Power is the first sustained synthesis of the Fed's political role-especially the way in which it uses its power to benefit some interest groups and not others-since the 2008 financial crisis. The book closely examines the Fed's unilateral actions during the 2008-2009 financial crisis when it leveraged half of the country's net worth without a congressional vote or presidential authorization. While the country was spared a second depression, the Fed's actions doled out lopsided benefits to finance. The Fed's favoritism and unprecedented assertions of power provoked public unease and a bipartisan congressional backlash to restrain it. Fed Power concludes with bold proposals to reform America's financial management to prevent future crises and to restore democratic accountability. A powerful critique of how the Federal Reserve governs the American economy, Fed Power will be essential reading for anyone interested in how inequality has increased since 2009, even throughout a liberal presidency committed to reducing inequality.
Copies
No copies available.
Fed Power: How Finance Wins
by Desmond King, Lawrence Jacobs
The Federal Reserve, created nearly a century ago, is the most powerful central bank in the world. The Fed's power, which derives from its ability to alter the money supply and move interest rates, weighs heavily not only on the US economy, but on the world economy as well. Not surprisingly, most scholarship on the Fed has focused on its economic role; however, the Fed's power isn't merely economic but is also political. Since its decisions benefit some economic sectors (and hence interest groups) and not others, it effectively makes political choices when shaping economic policy.
Lawrence R. Jacobs and Desmond King's Fed Power is the first sustained synthesis of the Fed's political role-especially the way in which it uses its power to benefit some interest groups and not others-since the 2008 financial crisis. The book closely examines the Fed's unilateral actions during the 2008-2009 financial crisis when it leveraged half of the country's net worth without a congressional vote or presidential authorization. While the country was spared a second depression, the Fed's actions doled out lopsided benefits to finance. The Fed's favoritism and unprecedented assertions of power provoked public unease and a bipartisan congressional backlash to restrain it. Fed Power concludes with bold proposals to reform America's financial management to prevent future crises and to restore democratic accountability. A powerful critique of how the Federal Reserve governs the American economy, Fed Power will be essential reading for anyone interested in how inequality has increased since 2009, even throughout a liberal presidency committed to reducing inequality.
Copies
No copies available.
Sterilized by the State: Eugenics, Race, and the Population Scare in Twentieth-Century North America
by Randall Hansen, Desmond King
This book is the first comprehensive analysis of eugenics in North America focused on the second half of the twentieth century. Based on new research, Randall Hansen and Desmond King show why eugenic sterilization policies persisted after the 1940s in the United States and Canada. Through extensive archival research, King and Hansen show how both superintendents at homes for the “feebleminded” and pro-sterilization advocates repositioned themselves after 1945 to avoid the taint of Nazi eugenics. Drawing on interviews with victims of sterilization and primary documents, this book traces the post-1940s development of eugenic policy and shows that both eugenic arguments and committed eugenicists informed population, welfare, and birth control policy in postwar America. In providing revisionist histories of the choice movement, the anti-population growth movement, and the Great Society programs, this book contributes to public policy and political and intellectual history.
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