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The Moynihan Myth: Race and a National Icon
Hardcover
20th Century United States HistoryBlack American StudiesGeneral Political Science
PREORDER - Expected ship date October 27, 2026
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ISBN10: 0252049446
ISBN13: 9780252049446
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: Oct 27 2026
Pages: 280
Weight: 1.00
Language: English
ISBN13: 9780252049446
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: Oct 27 2026
Pages: 280
Weight: 1.00
Language: English
In 1965, The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, or the Moynihan Report, affirmed future U.S. senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's status as his era's preeminent expert on race in the United States. Hailed as objective and held up as an exemplar of the public intellectual, Moynihan in fact contributed little original thought and led a segregated social and intellectual life that severely limited his knowledge of Black Americans John Hoberman cuts through decades of media adulation and high-profile reverence to illuminate Moynihan's shortcomings and the Report's disastrous legacy. As a model of the eloquent scholar-politician, Moynihan answered the demand for a white authority figure to explain Black dysfunction. But his undoubted intellect and gift for language eclipsed a singular lack of qualifications and endowed the Report with an authority it did not deserve. Hoberman delves into the factors that raised Moynihan to the role of race expert while revealing the depths of his naïveté about white racial animosity and how policymakers would use his Report against Black Americans. Incisive and in-depth, The Moynihan Myth is a long-overdue exposé of a deeply flawed race expert.
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