Book Review: Daniel Geary, Beyond Civil Rights: The Moynihan Report and Its Legacy
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929917717438 |
| Published date | 01 November 2017 |
| Date | 01 November 2017 |
| Author | Mitchell Robertson |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsThe Americas |
Political Studies Review 15(4)
and is thus disregarded as the determinant fac-
Beyond Civil Rights: The Moynihan Report
tor for what mobilises social resistance.
and Its Legacy by Daniel Geary. Philadelphia,
Simmons unpacks the concept of grievance
PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. 274pp.,
to explain not so much its value but its meaning
£29.50 (h/b), ISBN 9780812247312
within the community. She uses a social con-
structivist approach and the cases of the privati-
When Daniel Patrick Moynihan gathered his
sation of water in Bolivia in 2000 leading to the
staff on New Year’s Eve 1964 to produce a
Cochabamba Water War and the increased corn
report on the state of the African American com-
prices in Mexico in 2007 causing the tortillazo
munity in the US, it is doubtful whether even he
uprising to illustrate her point. She finds that
could have believed it would still be the subject
the protests that resulted were not so much
of such intense passion over five decades later.
because of the material trade-offs or food secu-
The resulting report, commonly identified as
rity threats that the marketisation of these sub-
‘The Moynihan Report’ but formally titled The
sistence goods presented but because these
Negro Family: The Case for National Action,
particular goods signified ‘community itself’ in
sensationally declared that ‘family structure’
their respective contexts. The types of goods
was the ‘fundamental problem’ in the African
that spark protest when subjected to profit-mak-
American community. Moynihan contended that
ing are those that are locally identified as indis-
this ‘disintegration of the Negro family structure’
pensable and for which daily effort is required
had led to a ‘matriarchal structure’ which was
for their benefits to be enjoyed.
‘out of line with the rest of the American soci-
This book’s noteworthy contribution is its
ety’. It was this, he argued, which explained the
attempt to disentangle...
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