Discrimination, Jobs, and Politics: The Struggle for Equal Employment Opportunity in the United Stat

Throughout this impressive and controversial account of the fight against job discrimination in the United States, Paul Burstein poses searching questions. Why did Congress adopt EEO legislation in the sixties and seventies? Has that legislation made a difference to the people it was intended to help? And what can the struggle for equal employment opportunity tell us about democracy in the United States?

"A highly original study of the struggle for equal opportunity in employment since the New Deal. With complex and compelling arguments that shed new light on the reason, timing, and way the congress prohibited discrimination in employment, Paul Burstein challenges conventional wisdom on the genesis of Civil Rights legislation."--William Julius Wilson, Harvard University

"This is an important, well-researched book. . . . Burstein has had the courage to break through narrow specializations within sociology . . . and even to address the types of acceptable questions usually associated with three different disciplines (political science, sociology, and economics). . . . This book should be read by all professionals interested in political sociology and social movements."--Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, "Social Forces"

"When Congress passes a law, how do we explain the timing, the particular content, and the decision to act at all? This account by Paul Burstein . . . is a fresh and original interpretation that should win a place in political science classrooms."--David R. Mayhew, Alfred Cowles Professor of Government, Yale University

" "Discrimination, Jobs and Politics" [is] satisfying because it tells a more complete story . . . than does most sociological research. . . . I findmyself returning to it when I'm studying the U.S. women's movement and recommending it to students struggling to do coherent research."-Rachel Rosenfeld, "Contemporary Sociology"