The End of Race?; Obama, 2008, and Racial Politics in America

How did race affect the election that gave America its first African American president? This book offers some fascinating, and perhaps controversial, findings. Donald R. Kinder and Allison Dale-Riddle assert that racism was in fact an important factor in 2008, and that if not for racism, Barack Obama would have won in a landslide. On the way to this conclusion, they make several other important arguments. In an analysis of the nomination battle between Obama and Hillary Clinton, they show why racial identity matters more in electoral politics than gender identity. Comparing the 2008 election with that of 1960, they find that religion played much the same role in the earlier campaign that race played in '08. And they argue that racial resentmenta modern form of racism that has superseded the old-fashioned biological varietyis a potent political force.

Donald R. Kinder is Philip E. Converse Collegiate Professor of Political Science, professor of psychology, and research professor in the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan. Allison Dale-Riddle is a doctoral candidate in political science at the University of Michigan.