| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 159 words from this article are provided below; about 317 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

A History of Affirmative Action, 1619–2000. By Philip F. Rubio. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001. xviii, 327 pp. Cloth, $48.00, ISBN 1-57806-354-X. Paper, $20.00, ISBN 1-57806-355-8.)

The presumption of color attached to slavery has pervaded the United States since its colonial beginnings. Not only bondage was color-coded; every aspect of status has been color-coded in a binary system. Being white has meant being privileged. Being black has meant having "no rights which the white man is bound to respect," as Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney put it in the U.S. Supreme Court's infamous decision in Scott v. Sanford (1857). White supremacy has been the nation's constant ideal and most insistent ideology. At every turn and level, government policy and practice have promoted that supremacy as a ruling caste agenda of social control that has invested whiteness with a property value most white Americans have continually refused to surrender, as the historian Philip F. Rubio argues. . . .

There are about 317 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.