The central message of this book: the American Right has been winning elections, gaining supporters, and enriching donors by stoking racial resentment and fear through coded language. The Left has one of four choices to make: they can try to beat the right at their own game of racial dog-whistling ( ...more

Took awhile to get through this book but it had valuable insights into the persuadeable middle - what made them lean one way or another. Also helped provide a retrospect per se of the persuadeable middle and why they voted for Trump - giving explanations more in-depth than I had previously read. Rec ...more

In 2016, Donald Trump won. Not only did he win, but the right wing won – they won back the presidency, defeating the left. In the United States, the left has recently found itself divided. In 2016, the Democratic party found itself at odds with its own members, with different parts of the electorate ...more

I really like the idea behind this book, and I agree with it 100 percent. As well, the research seems to my un-practiced sensibilities very well and thoroughly done.
The basic premise of the book came out of the author’s observation that even when “persuadable” people - people in the middle, neither ...more

The least convincing of all Haney López's books, though the methods in this were clear. Perhaps some case studies of this race-class narrative actually working would have bene more convincing. ...more

An insightful and essential book about how to message progressive politics in the age of Trumpism. Racial dog whistles-in combination with other strategies like a culture war around religion and gender--have for decades worked to pull white people away from economic populism. The answer, Haney Lopez ...more

Haney Lopez presents important information, based on various kinds of research. A summary might be: the best messaging around the progressive agenda to reach the (approx) 65% of Americans he calls "persuadables" is:
The Right has used "dog whistle" racism as a wedge issue for several decades. but we ...more

Not my first experience with Race-Class Narrative messaging but helpful as always to spend a full book's time with the context and research. Read it for work but felt immediately applicable to some local non-work organizing. It's fairly academic and the language can feel indelicate as a result but i ...more

Super helpful and hopeful, and written straightforwardly, which I always appreciate when discussing such complex, nuanced issues. I think this is an important analysis for any progressives interested in messaging and narrative-change. ...more

An essay-length argument stretched out to 230 pages. It's most stimulating when presenting new research or perspectives from Americans – and the data is invaluable for activists – but Haney-Lopez never manages to justify publishing this as a book. ...more

I am glad I read it and I definitely learned some things about electoral politics and messaging. My main complaint was how the quantitative stuff was presented. The results were encouraging but I would have needed a lot more detail to find it truly convincing. ...more

Super insightful about dog-whistle politics and ineffective responses, but I was hoping to hear more about effective ways to respond, particularly as an individual rather than a political group as a whole. ...more