{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02679738562091503, 'fraction_numerical': 0.01764705882352941, 'mean_word_length': 4.67037037037037, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Race, Money, and the American Welfare State. By Michael K. Brown. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press 1999. Pp.xxii,381. $55.00, cloth; $22.50, paper

I found Orville Vemon Burton's essay on race relations in the rural South the most insightful in the volume. Whenever I teach about the civil rights movement, I show the film, LBJ: A Biography, in which former aides to President Johnson, members of the U.S. Congress, and activists explain the fascinating story of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Right Act of 1965. The film provides a marvelous account of politicians engaged in hardball wrangling and ultimately doing the right thing. While the film shows how difficult it can be to pass legislation, nonetheless I always worry that it might encourage students to think that deeply rooted problems, such as racism, can be overcome by enacting a federal law. Professor Burton discusses how successfully local white politicians punished those who sought equal rights for blacks and how local officials resisted implementing such Supreme Court rulings and federal laws. Burton focuses upon the implementation of equal-opportunity laws or mandates and describes the sacrifices made by those who demanded equal treatment and of the long struggle to achieve it. This essay provides just the right level of detail and broad scope to balance changes in the nation's capital with changes in people's lives. This book will be well suited for a survey course on the South or on life in America since the 1940s.