Chapter 10
Social Class and Multiethnic Literature of the United States
Scott Henkel,
Scott Henkel
Search for more papers by this authorScott Henkel,
Scott Henkel
Search for more papers by this authorBook Editor(s):Gary Totten,
Gary Totten
Search for more papers by this authorFirst published: 14 December 2023
Abstract
In this chapter, the author outlines some of the key questions, problems, and debates from the intersectional study of race and class. He provides a wide view of some of what he feel are the most interesting scholarly debates since the nineteenth century about the intersection of race and class in multiethnic literature of the United States. The author then takes a deeper look into a single text, Du Bois's Black Reconstruction in America , which contains a trove of ideas about the intersection of race and class in the United States. Black Reconstruction is Du Bois's effort to remake the understanding of the period after the US Civil War, an era that many people hoped would include the building not only of new brick and mortar but also of a new nation that was more equal and more free.
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