Contested Terrain: Understanding The Persistence Of Racial Inequality In America

Review Of The Color Of Politics: Race And The Mainsprings Of American Politics By M. Goldfield, Facing Up To The American Dream By J. Hochschild, Shifting The Color Line: Race And The American Welfare State By R.C. Lieberman, Voting Hopes Or Fears? White Voters, Black Candidates, And Racial Politics In America By K. Reeves, And Reaching Beyond Race By P.M. Sniderman And E.G. Carmine

Democracy, Race, and Multiculturalism in the Twenty-First Century: Will the Voting Rights Act Ever be Obsolete?

Part I of this essay begins one hundred years before the passage of the Act, with Reconstruction. I briefly canvas the interracial alliances of the Reconstruction and Redemption periods, underscoring that American democracy has been most responsive to the masses, including working class whites, when interracial alliances between whites and blacks commanded majority power. I then recount how a politics of white supremacy animated and perpetuated racial schisms between blacks and whites for a century in the South. Part II describes how the Act came to be passed, emphasizing the role of protest and coalition politics in its enactment, and the dramatic impact of the Act in fostering active participation by communities of color in American politics. Part III explores the opportunities and challenges presented by growing diversity of the electorate, underscoring the modem manifestations of historic racial divides in American politics. There is a continued, albeit less pronounced, strain of race loyalty in voting patterns that we have not yet vanquished

[Review of] F. Chris Garcia, ed. Latinos and the Political System

Latinos and the Political System, carefully compiled by F. Chris Garcia, represents a significant contribution to the field of political analysis as well as to the study of the complexities and subtleties of the politics of the Latino community in the United States. While the book\u27s focus is clearly on the emerging place of the Latino community on the American political landscape, Garcia and his collaborators amply demonstrate that as needs and wants are converted into specific policies, the implementation of these will have significant ramifications for the rest of the system as well as for Latino politics specifically. This collection is as much about American politics as it is about the politics of Latino ethnicity. It is the kind of collection that can be used to illustrate case studies in local, state-wide, regional, and national trends in the rapidly changing face of American politics. It also presents an in-depth analysis of the historical, contemporary, future directions, and political potential of the fastest growing ethnic group in the United State-doubling in the next twenty years, and tripling in the next forty

Menorah Review (No. 20, Fall, 1990)

Abba Hillel Silver, The Holocaust and American Politics: 1943-1944 -- Different Jews - One Judaism -- Book Briefing -- Rescuing Jews During the Holocaust -- Balancing -- Text and Context: The Case of American Judaism -- Book Briefing

Black Power At Work: Community Control, Affirmative Action, and the Construction Industry

{Excerpt} As the contributors to this book show, confrontations with the building trades unions became a critical axis for the rise of Black Power and community control politics, and provide a means for us to rethink the history of Black Power through the fusion by the movement of community control and labor organizing. By tracing the evolution of these activists\u27 organizing methods and analysis, we show that African American grassroots struggles to desegregate the construction industry provided a major, and in some cities the, means through which Black Power movements became ascendant in African American urban politics. Only through close attention to local politics are these profound cultural and political shifts visible. Because of their decentralized quality, the movements for community control of the construction industry varied by city, based on the idiosyncratic nature of the specific African American communities and political networks from which they emerged. These differences were accentuated by weak federal enforcement of affirmative action plans, which relied on a strategy of localism that placed the origin, evolution, and fate of construction industry affirmative action plans primarily in the hands of local actors and courts

Cavell On American Philosophy And The Idea Of America

Here is a common picture of what American philosophy looks like to and within many American philosophy departments. To a considerable degree, it does not exist at all. Most departments do not feel obliged to teach American philosophy as they do modern philosophy (Descartes to Kant) and ancient Greek philosophy. It is normally not part of the requirements for a major. Of course, writings by Americans are mostly what do get taught, but they are taught as just philosophy, not as American philosophy. When it is taught, it is taught as a peripheral history course, typically focusing on the major pragmatist thinkers from the late nineteenth to the mid twentieth century: Peirce, James, and Dewey, with perhaps a turn toward Rorty to round things off. These figures are thought to emphasize the importance of paying attention to what works: to experimental science in the pursuit of knowledge and to liberal reform in politics. The only way to discern what works – in either epistemology or politics – is through trial and error. Epistemology and social theory in any more visionary sense are evaded. Our going practices of experimental science, particularly natural science, have shown themselves to be good enough: neither in need of nor admitting of any further epistemic support from foundationalist theories of justification. In politics, liberal decency, respect for rights, and reliance on markets are about the best we can do

American Trade Politics 4th Edition

In this comprehensive revision of the most influential, widely read analysis of the US trade policymaking system, Destler addresses how globalization has reshaped trade politics, weakening traditional protectionism but intensifying concern about trade's societal impacts. Entirely new chapters treat the deepening of partisan divisions and the rise of "trade and . . ." issues (especially labor and the environment). The author concludes with a comprehensive economic and political strategy to cope with globalization and maximize its benefits. The original edition of American Trade Politics won the Gladys Kammerer Award of the American Political Science Association for the best book on US national policy.

Fat Cats and Thin Kittens: Are People Who Make Large Campaign Contributions Different?

Critics of campaign finance in the United States often direct their fire toward contributors who make large donations. Critics charge that large contributions are unfair, unrepresentative, and undemocratic. Accordingly, they push for "reforms" that would favor small contributions over large, and public money over private donations. Survey data on contributors contradict that stereotype of contributors of large amounts and their effects on American politics. Overall, "fat cats" differ less from contributors of smaller amounts than critics have alleged. The differences that do exist are mostly unsurprising and generally small in magnitude. Survey results show that both policy liberalism and Democratic partisanship are well represented among contributors of large sums.The supporters of McCain-Feingold argue that new restrictions on large contributions will profoundly alter American politics for the better. Their claims have no basis in fact. New laws aimed at restricting large donations in favor of smaller ones will have little effect on practical politics

Ashford and Pappalardo\u27s One nation under God: A Christian hope for American politics (Book Review)

A review of Ashford, B., & Pappalardo, C. (2015). One nation under God: A Christian hope for American politics. Nashville, TN: B & H Academic. 160 pp. $14.99. ISBN 978143369069