Racial Fault Lines The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California [Paperback]

This book unravels the ethnic history of California since the late nineteenth-century Anglo-American conquest and the institutionalization of white supremacy in the state. Drawing from an array of primary and secondary sources, Tom?s Almaguer weaves a detailed, disturbing portrait of ethnic, racial, and class relationships during this tumultuous time. A new preface looks at the invaluable contribution the book has made to our understanding of ethnicity and class in America and of the social construction of race in the Far West.

Tom?s Almagueris Professor of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University.

An excellent summary and interpretation of race relations in nineteenth-century California. Empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated, it is the last and best word on the historical origins of the racial hierarchy that contemporary multiculturalists are struggling to overcome. George Fredrickson, Stanford University

Sometime soon in the 21st century, all of California's peoples will belong to minorities, and Almaguer's pathbreaking comparative history is indispensable for understanding how and why this society became so racially diverse. His study expands the borders of multicultural scholarship. Ronald Takaki, University of California, Berkeley