American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom (6th Edition) - Softcover

Features:

• Two interrelated themes — the idea of universal freedom and the concept of minority-majority coalitions — show students the profound influence African Americans have had on American government and politics.
• Abundant, relevant historical material enriches the story of the African American political experience and gives students the background they need to understand the evolution of race and democracy in America.
• Often missing from similar texts, the strong behavioral component gives students a sense of the diversity of African American attitudes and behavior and introduces students to how modern political science survey research is conducted.
• High-interest boxed features throughout the text present case studies and vignettes about important historical events, influential personalities, and contemporary issues to further engage students in the text material.
• An abundance of tables, charts, and graphs throughout the text illustrate discussions and make concepts concrete with real-world data and examples.
• Chapter summaries bring together for students the major themes of each chapter.
• Includes sections on multicultural coalitions, and the growing influence of Latin and Asian American populations on American “race” politics, African American women and the quest for universal freedom, and African Americans and HIV-AIDS.

 

New to this Edition:

 

NEW FEATURE!

Faces and Voices of the Struggle boxed feature appearing in most chapters highlights Americans - black and white, famous and obscure - who affected the foundations of our nation and helped to universalize the quest for freedom.  Examples include Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Belafonte, John Mercer Langston, and Barack Obama.

 

NEW! COMPANION WEBSITE

This open-access site contains a variety of tools to help students become engaged in the ongoing quest for universal freedom. It includes links to primary sources, African American elected officials, media, think tanks, scholarly associations and interest groups.  The “In The News” section is updated regularly with ongoing issues that relate to topics in the book.

www.ablongman.com/walton

 

Full coverage and discussion of Hurricane Katrina’s effect on Americans and American politics, including the racial divide in opinion, the stereotypical media portrayal, and the responses of Congress and President Bush.  Also uses the events surrounding Katrina as a case study in bureaucratic failure.

 Examination of the behavior of black voters when a black Republican runs for Senate or Congress, in light of the relatively large number of blacks who ran for statewide office in 2006.

Expanded discussion of the prospects for rainbow coalition politics, relying on data from a recent University of Michigan survey.

Examination of the emerging ideological divisions and the decline of solidarity in the Congressional Black Caucus.

New detail on the problems and prospects of immigration as the basis of a larger minority coalition for universal freedom.

 Discussion on the renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Hanes Walton, Jr. (1941-2013), Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan, was an architect of the modern study of African American politics. Over four decades of prodigious research (including 25 books) and conceptual refinement he helped to make the subfield of black politics an important area of study in political science. His last book was The African American Electorate: A Statistical Portrait. Robert C. Smith, Professor of Political Science Emeritus, San Francisco State University, is the author of multiple books and articles and of the Encyclopedia of African American Politics. His most recent books are Conservatism and Racism and Why in America They are the Same and John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama and the Politics of Ethnic Incorporation and Avoidance. Sherri L. Wallace is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisville. She has received numerous awards for excellence in teaching and instructional design and serves in a variety of teaching and learning capacities with APSA task forces, curriculum assessments, and textbook evaluations.