BOOK REVIEWS THE DECLINING SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE

Marx and Engels predicted that racial and eth-nic divisions would increasingly lose their sal-ience in the wake of capitalist development. Socie-ty would split up into two great, antagonistic classes, while social distinctions inherited from the pre-capitalist era would recede. In a similar manner, the assimilationist paradigm of race rela-tions which emerged in the 20th century assumed that racial conflict would inevitably give way to ra-cial harmony and amalgamation. It wasn’t until the ’60s that the black revolt signaled the decline of assimilationist notions by asserting that racism was a permanent fixture of American life and by putting forth a political agenda which did not in-clude integration as its goal. This impulse, cou