“Robert L. Allen and Chude Pamela Allen wrote the book on the destructive and corrupting impact of racist ideology on U.S. social movements. Their recently re-issued Reluctant Reformers remains as timely now as when it was first published 47 years ago. The book takes readers through a sweeping survey of major U.S. social movements – beginning with abolition and marching through the Populist, Progressive, women’s suffrage, labor, socialist and communist movements. An epilogue added in 1983 looks at the burst of radical activism that flourished in the long sixties. In each case, Reluctant Reformers details the ways that racist ideology shaped and ultimately corrupted white-dominated collective efforts at social reform.”