Nicholas Guyatt, "Bind Us Apart: How Enlightened Americans Invented Racial Segregation" (Basic Books, 2016)
Why did the Founding Fathers fail to include blacks and Indians in their cherished proposition that \u201call men are created equal\u201d? Racism is the usual answer. Yet Nicholas Guyatt argues in\xa0Bind Us Apart: How Enlightened Americans Invented Racial Segregation\xa0(Basic Books, 2016) that white liberals from the founding to the Civil War were not confident racists, but tortured reformers conscious of the damage that racism would do to the nation. Many tried to build a multiracial America in the early nineteenth century, but ultimately adopted the belief that non-whites should create their own republics elsewhere: in an Indian state in the West, or a colony for free blacks in Liberia. Herein lie the origins of \u201cseparate but equal.\u201d Essential reading for anyone hoping to understand today's racial tensions, Bind Us Apart reveals why racial justice in the United States continues to be an elusive goal: despite our best efforts, we have never been able to imagine a fully inclusive, multiracial society.\n1619, Revisited\xa0by Nicholas Guyatt.\nHow Proslavery Was the Constitution?\xa0by Nicholas Guyatt.\n1619 Project\xa0by Nikole Hannah-Jones\nAdam McNeil is a third-year PhD Student in early African American Women's History at Rutgers University.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law