KRYDER, Daniel (Thomas)

PERSONAL:

Male. Education: George Washington University, B.A., 1981; New School for Social Research, M.A., 1989, Ph.D., 1995.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Politics Department, Brandeis University, Mail Stop 058, Waltham, MA 02454-9110; fax: 781-736-2777. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, associate professor of political science; Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, associate professor of politics, director of graduate studies for politics department. Has also taught at Harvard University and held a research position at Princeton University.

WRITINGS:

Divided Arsenal: Race and the American State during World War II, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS:

Daniel Kryder teaches political science at Brandeis University. His research interests in the twentieth-century American political process include the nature of democratization, the politics of race and ethnicity during wartime, and the way in which social protest can influence the government and its policies. Kryder's first book, Divided Arsenal: Race and the American State during World War II, combines all of these interests in a detailed analysis of race-conscious policies promulgated by the federal government during the war years.

Kryder begins with a look at Gunnar Myrdal's 1944 classic An American Dilemma, which claims that improved race relations would be an inevitable result of a modern American war such as World War II. Kryder wonders, "Why did the collision of egalitarian ideals and racist practices in the United States between 1941 and 1945 not fulfill Myrdal's expectations and produce significant and lasting changes in the ideologies and laws governing race relations?" Divided Arsenal then sets out to answer this question.

Divided Arsenal is an uncompromising history that focuses on two key points: President Franklin D. Roosevelt's imperative to achieve total mobilization for the war effort, and the way in which racial tensions had to be managed so that they would not interfere with this mobilization. "FDR's piecemeal reforms, concludes Kryder in this illuminating scholarly study, both energized and subverted the nascent movement for racial equality," noted a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Gilbert Taylor, writing for Booklist, recognized Divided Arsenal as "a serious work for the serious student" of the history of state actions in the area of race relations.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Kryder, Daniel, Divided Arsenal: Race and the American State during World War II, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2000.

PERIODICALS

American Political Science Review, September, 2001, Philip A. Klinkner, review of Divided Arsenal, p. 735.

Black Issues Book Review, May-June, 2000, Roy L. Brooks, review of Divided Arsenal, p. 37.

Booklist, February 15, 2000, Gilbert Taylor, review of Divided Arsenal, p. 1077.

Business History Review, winter, 2000, Eric Arnesen, review of Divided Arsenal, pp. 720-724.

Journal of American History, September, 2001, Bruce Nelson, review of Divided Arsenal, pp. 709-710.

Journal of Economic History, December, 2000, William J. Collins, review of Divided Arsenal, p. 1164.

Journal of Military History, January, 2001, Dale E. Wilson, review of Divided Arsenal, pp. 224-225.

Labor History, May, 2001, Charles D. Chamberlain, review of Divided Arsenal, p. 213.

Library Journal, January, 2000, Daniel D. Liestman, review of Divided Arsenal, p. 132.

Publishers Weekly, January 17, 2000, review of Divided Arsenal, p. 53.

ONLINE

Brandeis University Web site,http://www.brandeis.edu/ (October 14, 2004), profile of Daniel Kryder.

Incore Web site,http://www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/ (October 14, 2004), Renford Reese, review of Divided Arsenal.*