The Fifth Freedom: Jobs, Politics, and Civil Rights in the United States, 1941-1972

The Fifth Freedom: Jobs, Politics, and Civil Rights in the United States, 1941-1972. By Anthony S. Chen. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009. xxiii + 395 pp. Notes, illustrations, tables, appendices, index. Paper, $24.95. ISBN: 978-0-691-13953-1.

Anthony S. Chen argues that federal executive and judicial authorities adopted affirmative action as a central means of addressing job discrimination largely because of the recurrent failure of Congress to create an authoritative administrative agency in which to lodge responsibility in this important matter. The opposition of Republicans and the energetic lobbying of organized business were primarily responsible for this failure. …