Forging Rivals Race, Class, Law, and the Collapse of Postwar Liberalism

The three decades after the end of World War II saw the rise and fall of a particular version of liberalism in which the state committed itself to promoting a modest form of economic egalitarianism while simultaneously embracing ethnic, racial, and religious pluralism. But by the mid-1970s, postwar liberalism was in a shambles: while its commitment to pluralism remained, its economic policies had been abandoned, and the Democratic Party, its primary political vehicle, was collapsing. Schiller attributes this demise to the legal architecture of postwar liberalism, arguing that postwar liberalism's goals of advancing economic egalitarianism and promoting pluralism ultimately conflicted with each other. Through the use of specific historical examples, Schiller demonstrates that postwar liberalism was riddled with legal and institutional contradictions that undermined progressive politics in the mid-twentieth-century United States.

Introduction. Legal history and the death of postwar liberalism; 1. Forging postwar liberalism; 2. Ed Rainbow's problem; 3. The phony commission; 4. A tale of two propositions; 5. 1966: a terrible year for George Johns; 6. 'The day of the minstrel show is over'; 7. Forging rivals, shattering liberalism.

Reuel Schiller is a Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings College of Law, where he teaches American legal history, labor law, and administrative law.