BOOK ALERT

One of America's great historians, Professor Jacqueline Jones of the University of Texas at Austin, whom I am proud to call a friend, has just published a new book, A Dreadful Deceit:  The Myth of Race from the Colonial Era to Obama's America.  As soon as I saw it mentioned I ordered it, and today it arrived.  I have this moment finished reading the Introduction.  It is stunningly brilliant, managing to say with power and precision in nine pages what I tried in my feeble way to suggest in my one book-length effort to address the subject.  I look forward with great excitement to reading the book, and I strongly recommend it to all of you.  Jackie, the very deserving recipient of a MacArthur genius award, somehow manages to do consistently extraordinary historiographical work while projecting the image of a soccer mom.  She was at Brandeis for many years and some while ago moved to Austin with her husband, Jeffrey Abramson, who is himself a distinguished professor of Law and Government at Austin.  Jackie's book, American Work, is an indispensable source for anyone seriously interested in American labor history.