From the Publisher
Jackson's work is an intellectual history far more than a biographical treatment; it captures the essential interaction of ideas, egos, and events. . . . Here is a treatment of how research and scholarship shaped and were shaped by the real world.—Journal of Southern History
A wide-sweeping, incisive, and penetrating biography of a great intellect and international figure.—Science
The deepest, most scholarly and insightful treatment yet written of Gunnar Myrdal and his classic, An American Dilemma. Walter Jackson's volume constitutes a major contribution to a variety of fields—race relations, the history and sociology of twentieth-century American social science, and the history of social policy in the United States. It can be highly recommended to all readers with interests in these fields.—Thomas F. Pettigrew, University of California, Santa Cruz
Indispensable reading for anybody who is curious about how a European economist with almost no background in American politics constructed the liberal paradigm of race relations . . . and laid the intellectual basis for government policies in the 1960s. The failure to implement Myrdal's vision remains America's dilemma.—Contemporary Sociology
In this magnificent piece of scholarship, Walter Jackson traces the convergence of Myrdal and the American Negro question as it stood in the mid-20th century. . . . An indispensable account of how one extraordinary social scientist traced the long-term origins of America's current dilemma.—Times Higher Education Supplement
