The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama

by Gwen Ifill

In The Breakthrough, veteran journalist Gwen Ifill surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obama’s stunning presidential victory and introducing the emerging young African American politicians forging a bold new path to political power.

Ifill argues that the Black political structure formed during the Civil Rights movement is giving way to a generation of men and women who are the direct beneficiaries of the struggles of the 1960s. She offers incisive, detailed profiles of such prominent leaders as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and U.S. Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama (all interviewed for this book), and also covers numerous up-and-coming figures from across the nation. Drawing on exclusive interviews with power brokers such as President Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, his son Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., and many others, as well as her own razor-sharp observations and analysis of such issues as generational conflict, the race/ gender clash, and the "black enough" conundrum, Ifill shows why this is a pivotal moment in American history.

The Breakthrough is a remarkable look at contemporary politics and an essential foundation for understanding the future of American democracy in the age of Obama.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, Race, Journalism, Audiobook, African American

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Christy Hammer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hope springs eternal, even in politics.” Gwen Ifill

Gwen Ifill, as many GRs educated folks who catch US Public Television know, died last November of endometrial cancer, at the ridiculously young age of 61. Likely the most well known and well loved Black female journalist ever, with her death I was absolutely more shocked and depressed than when Trump won the election the week before. She was only four years older than me, and while I’ve had a few more than my share of close friends die prematurely young, Gwen dying made me feel old, like she was a linked contemporary (although really an idol of mine, more than anything). I happened to have a signed copy of her book, sent to me when it came out over a decade after I met her, and was happy to review it again. In honor of her life as a truly lovely, kind person - always with a big smile and little laugh - but also as one of the sharpest journalists of her generation, I recommend everybody reads her book in ’17!

It’s still difficult to believe we she won’t ever see her again on the News Hour on PBS. She was always full of rapid-fire, intense assertions and questions that she rarely left rhetorical, and used them to move conversations along and to prevent guests from avoiding difficult topics. While so smart, she was also savvy about people. She had that ability to focus on others directly and get them to talk about what she wanted to talk about, both for her own understanding, insatiable curiosity, and concern about the world around her, but for us. Ifill, as consummate professional, suffered well her first major criticism that I recall in the press that writing a pro-Obama book would bias her to him, and would compromise her integrity and ability to criticize as a reporter. No such luck, as anybody reading the book sees that Obama’s election was held up as an event that reflects the hard-won culmination of a Black political class in the US, and much less about the man.

Obama’s presidency was a “breakthrough”, both actual and symbolic, for Black leadership in the US in the context of a long history of discrimination in Blacks’ lives, including professional ones. Ifill argues that Obama was a clear outcome of the 1960s Civil Rights movement, but a Black man in the White houses was something too many Whites didn’t “cotton to” well (to use a Southern phrase popular in Indiana when I was a child). Part of her history on Black leadership in the US noted generational differences among African Americans in philosophies of assimilation versus activism. (Where some African Americans that were more like Booker T. Washington argued for Black self-improvement and accommodation to White society, others were followers of W.E.B. Dubois' more revolutionary approach and encouraged Blacks to fight for their Civil Rights including the vote and equal educational opportunity.) Ifill tips her hat to her own moderate, Liberal politics saying that both positions have merits, and mentions that no amount of social engineering can remove the damage done to the Black American psyche caused by slavery. Still, she says that Blacks must be pragmatic and can and must continue to struggle for full participation and demand increased equality in US society, and to especially address problems caused by racism and poverty including reducing the violence and prison prospects for young Black males.

Black political leaders were interviewed by Gwen including two whom I’ve followed their careers: Deval Patrick from Massachusetts, and Cory Booker on NJ, asking questions about the role of race in their careers. I found it fascinating how she traces the long history race and gender in journalism, and connects those "identity" elements to social mobility like Angela Davis did in Women, Race, and Class. Gwen knew she was “breaking some glass ceilings,” while not always wanting to make much out of either her race of gender as she moved up in her field with increasingly visible roles of leadership. She particularly knew, and took seriously, her status of role model and explicit mentoring she was never too tired to do of other Black female journalists.

Here in an unbelievable 2017 in Western (cough) Civilization, I experienced waves of sadness and anger as she reflects, ever hopefully but grounded in the reality of possibility, what a US Black President might mean for the future betterment of race issues. She had hope and conviction that this was going to be a future that included less racism in the US and specifically for the next generation of Black leaders. It’s hard not to feel adrift and a bit hopeless about improved race relations with the trajectory to the Right that many lower-through-middle class Whites took towards Trump. (For more on that, see my review of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis). I’m sure I’m not the only one that realized Gwen Ifill was deathly sick but surely still conscious and aware that Trump won before she died. We all get our solace where we can, and I surely project, but do imagine she was a tiny bit glad not to see the Long March of human foibles much further.

When I met Gwen Ifill in ’98 she was a “fill-in” journalist on what was then called the McNeil-Lehrer News Show. I spend several breathless hours with her after she flew up to NH to meet me, and I was featured (“15 minutes of fame”!) in perhaps two- of a ten- minute segment filmed in my office in Concord on national television, as a “Single Sex Expert”, on gender equity and the experiment of single-sex math classes. Gwen apparently found me after I was included in a GAO (US Government Accountability Office) white paper on single-sex math classes, studying whether such classes were effective, were violations of Civil Rights laws, etc.. She was quite interested once I mentioned I was researching race and multiculturalism with teachers in the “deep North” of New Hampshire, and after we realized we were in a couple places at the same time in the 80s (when we both were working for Jesse Jackson for President campaigns, me in NH and her in Massachusetts, before she went to DC) she asked me to meet her at her hotel near the Manchester airport before her early morning flight back. I swooned, spent several more hours with her then (laughing as much as talking about ugly issues of race in NH schools) and became a bonafide fan for life. I never saw her again, even though she'd invited me to DC.

How else can we honor her? Modeling ourselves after her. Whether Black, White, within and without any gender binary (or trinary) we all must do Gwen justice by continuing to ask questions like she did, think like she did, “kill with kindness” your enemies and those that would speak ill of you, invite all to the table, facilitate conversations that need it, and listen carefully to all.

I adore that her fans can get a Gwen Ifill “Hope springs eternal, even in politics” refrigerator magnet on Amazon here:

https://www.amazon.com/Hope-springs-e...

Her quote, “I believe that even in the darkest times, a brighter future is in the hands of those who can give help and hope,” is available on a t-shirt – how cool is that? Love you, Gwen Ifill.

https://www.amazon.com/T-Chance-GWEN-...

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been one year since Gwen Ifill died. I decided to read her book and compare it to what is happening today.

The book is about race relations. Ifill provides a brief history of race relations in this country. Then from the civil rights movement to 2009, she reveals the increase in Blacks entering public office. She provides a brief biography of current Blacks running for or who have been elected to office from Obama, Devel Patrick to Cory Booker. She shows how people like Shirley Chisham led the way. Ifill also discusses the state and city level black politicians. I enjoyed her section about Kamala Harris. She was the District Attorney of San Francisco in 2009 when Ifill interviewed her. She then became the California State Attorney General and then State Senator. Ifill could spot talent ready to move upward.

The book is well written and researched. The main issue of the book is more relevant today than in 2009. I can just hear what Ifill would say about today’s treatment of journalist. I still miss seeing her on the PBSNewshour.

I read this on my Kindle app for my iPad. The book is 288 pages. The book was published by Anchor on January 20, 2009.

[Harry Lane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable and enlightening read. The book is somewhat dated, having been written as Obama was winning for his first term. However, the issues remain relevant and the personal experiences detailed shed a lot of light on the opportunities and pitfalls of being black and a politician. It is clear that in some ways we have come a long way for the 1960s; in others, not so much. Ifill is an astute observer and good at relating what she has seen.

[Beth Oppenlander · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find that perhaps the book is even more relevant 5 years after it was first published than it was during the height of the euphoria many felt about Obama's political victory. In an age where race once again is becoming a commonly discussed issue, the concept of breaking through toward real reform is profound. The book is easy to read and candidly discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the racial divide in politics. In Ifill's own words, "Perhaps breakthroughs are on the verge of becoming enough of a part of the national political landscape that at some point we will cease noticing them altogether." While we clearly have not yet arrived, it is a destination to which we should all aspire.

[Emilia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dear Gwen,

I finally read your book, even though you signed my copy many years ago. I felt compelled to pick it up not only because I miss seeing you on television but also that the topic of your book is so interesting to consider with our country's current leadership. I was devastated to learn of your death just days after the Presidential election. I needed to listen to your words again so reading The Breakthrough made sense.

When you wrote the book, there was some concern about you being the moderator for the 2008 vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin because your then recently published book was pro-Barack Obama. Perhaps those people should have carefully read your book first to know that that wasn't the case. The Breakthrough is a concise collection of case studies about past and present African-American politicians. While you highlighted the successes of Artur Davis, Cory Booker, and Deval Patrick, you didn't shy away from their foibles. Knowing you as a journalist, you must have asked some really difficult questions in order to get these complete pictures of these politicians. As a diversity coordinator and teacher at an independent school, I was particularly interested in the education of these men. I understood when Deval Patrick was stung by the words of his sister, who told him that he spoke like a "white boy" after coming home from his prep school. His grandmother quickly stated afterward that Deval sounded like an "educated boy." Code-switching is a hot diversity topic in independent schools and these politicians have had to do their fair share. President Obama himself has been noted to code-switch in a hilarious Key and Peele sketch.

Your book addresses race in politics in a truthful and engaging way. I am, however, left with many questions. How would you have covered Kamala Harris as current U.S. senator? What would you have to say about today's treatment of journalists and the media by the President? My final question is if President Obama was the "breakthrough," what would you have called President Trump?

I feel so fortunate to have known you. I'm only grateful that you wrote this book so that future generations can also know your extraordinary talents as a journalist.

Sincerely,
Emilia

[Joanne Otto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Were it not for this being my book club's selection, I probably would not have chosen to read an eight-year-old book on politics. But having loved (and missed) Gwen on PBS News, I was willing to invest the time. I'm glad she turned down Doubleday's request that she write a book about Barack Obama, and instead decided to "dig even deeper than that and write the book I've been carrying around in my head all these years." Even though it's not up to date at this point, the book still offers a wealth of insights into the breakthrough of blacks into American politics at the city, state and federal levels and the complexity of the African-American electorate. I'm glad I read it.

[Ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

IQ "A career spent watching politicians of every gender, color, and creed trying to sort their way through the abrasions of political change has taught me much. I've witnessed the uneasy transition from the civil rights struggle to direct engagement in electoral politics. As black politicians have broken through, I've documented the friction that has resulted when new realities, demographic as well as political, confront established customs and institutions." pg. 12

Oh Gwen. I can't write the review this book deserves nor can I write it without wanting to cry. I finished this book a few months ago and remember hoping she'd update it soon because many of the politicians she interviews have disappeared from the political stage (except for Congresswoman Bass, Sen. elect Harris, Sen. Booker and Bakari Sellers). It's an especially helpful read for understanding the perspective of the older generation of Black politicians and activists, the civil rights generation who greatly confused me back in the 2007-2008 election season. I believe this breakthrough will continue, even in the age of Trump. I'm glad someone wrote a book about this important topic and even happier that Gwen Ifill was the one who wrote it.

"So the first generation comes through, and they say great, you get your law degree and you go out and you be a troublemaker in the black community. Second wave comes through, and aha, now I've got opportunities in business. Third wave comes through, and maybe we've gotten to the point where we can get somewhere with mainstream politics, not protest politics. It becomes a viable choice in ways that it might have...in more places than it might have been." Christopher Edley Jr. (pg. 14)

"'If you perceive that I have a torch that represents and you want it,' Jealous heard Bond tell the crowd at the march, 'you shouldn't be asking for it. You should snatch it.'" 206

"What is the point of electing African Americans to high office if their ties to the black community do not bind them tightly enough to black causes? Is a black candidate who, for instance, opposes affirmative action a breakthrough worth having? Or as Georgetown sociology professor Michael Eric Dyson put it to me: 'If this is the price we pay for that kind of access, we'd rather not have it.'" pg. 7

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

An extended blog post masquerading as a book. So much more could have been done with this book but it again highlights the dangers of insta-history.

[Sister · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really didn't know anything about this book before reading it except that Gwen Ifill had written it. A family friend [Michael Days] has written a book about Obama's accomplishments, so I thought these would be good bookends. I also liked Gwen, and I heard her voice while I was reading. It's truly her - thoughtful, analytical, not given to easy answers. The McCain people who didn't want her to moderate the vice-presidential debate were just grasping at straws: a paean to Obama this is not. What she is doing here is trying to figure out whether Obama is representative of a new group of politicians who happen to be black [that's how some would define themselves]: Cory Booker and Michael Nutter are just two of the younger black politicians she profiles and then analyzes them vis-a-vis Obama. There are many reasons to be sad that Gwen is no longer with us. I surely would like to hear her analysis about the current state of affairs and I would also like to read an update of her book in about 10 - 15 years. Are these young black politicians really part of Obama's legacy [my very crude way of putting it, not hers], as opposed to the Republican sweep of government in 2016? I guess we'll all have to wait on that one.

[Karen Douglass · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book rather slowly because the detail is dense and important. Even though we are past the Obama era in Washington, understanding the shift in racial politics is vital. That we need to leave behind the confrontational politics of the past decades is clear. The need for coalition building is urgent, and ever more important in our current divisive government, from the top down. Our two-party system is broken and we need all the wise, well educated candidates we can find, with less emphasis on gender or skin color than smarts and compassion, and dedication to public service. Ifill had access to the development of a new form of government based on public service rather than personal power. Her voice has out lived her, and for that I am grateful.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

ideally about race and politics surrounding Obama election but really more about multiple people of race and how they have succeeded/failed at politics. While insightful and full of footnotes (which were interesting), I probably wouldn’t have finished if I wasn’t so enamoured with Gwen, now with Jim Lehrer Newshour via PBS (remember I read to avoid reality). Hardback, purchased in DC; 2009, 264 pgs

[Nancyj130 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful an.d thought provoking

I loved Gwen Ifill's reporting on the PBS Newshour and this book certainly meets that standard. Don't know why it took me so many years after it's publication for me to find this book (more than a decade), but I'm very glad that I did. It's interesting how so many of the individuals that she chose as 'break through 's" are this election year 's not topics. And on the other hand, how many have faded away.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good listen. I liked the overall premise but thought, especially toward the end, it rushed through a bunch of examples without given them enough time to breathe. It was also, at times, difficult to listen to a piece written just after Obama’s election with all the hope of the time through the lens of our current climate.

[S. Clinton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book for background on many African-American politicians who are still in the news today. At this time, it is an interesting perspective on the hope and progress that seemed to be the future at the time of Obama's election, versus the existing political situation in America today.

[Gordon Kwok · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book with some history about the "breakthrough" of African Americans holding political office with some discussion on President Obama's meteoric rise. Overall, a great book if you like political science.

[Cherish Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Gary Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

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How far along have we come in regard to race and politics and how does one measure success?

A poll done in 1958, more than half of Americans said they would not vote for a black candidate. Ifill gives us the history of how we got from 1958 to electing our first African American president.

During the last presidential campaign Obama went to the Boston Commons in Massachusetts and stood there with the governor of the state. They raised their hands in the air as thousands cheered. The bandstand, where these two men were standing, was the same place where George Wallace stood when he was running for president in 1968.

Blacks and whites sometimes see things differently. A poll in 2007 found 71% of whites felt the relationship between blacks and whites was good, but only 55% of blacks felt the same.

Ifill indicates that the number of Democrats who voted in 2008 were about the same as in 2004. The difference is that many Republicans just stayed home. Obama received 66% of the vote from those under 30. In fact the youth vote exploded. Participation among youth voters quadrupled in Tennessee, tripled in Iowa, George, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.

Ifell goes into depth talking about the Clinton Obama primary. In 2007, Andrew Young wanted Obama to run for president in 2016. He just didn’t believe that an African American could win in 2008. Young felt Obama was just too young. That was one of the reasons why he was supporting Hillary Clinton in the primary.


“Dianne Bystrom , director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women in Politics at Iowa State University, says many women were troubled when Obama’s shooting star eclipsed Clinton’s, especially since it was Clinton who had taken Obama under her wing when he arrived in the Senate. ‘Here you are, the bright intelligent person in the workplace and you basically train this new young man and he gets promoted over you”, Brystrom said.

Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman, to run for the Democratic Party nomination for president, often said she felt more discrimination as a female than as an African American. There are 83 nations which has more women in their national legislatures than the US.

Ifell spends a chapter Patrick Deval, governor of Massachusetts, as well as a whole chapter on Barak Obama. She discusses Kamala Harris, who is currently the District Attorney in San Francisco and running for state Attorney General in 2010. She tells the story of Karen Bass, the Speaker of the California Assembly as well as other African American elected officials.

Very interesting read.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a great disappointment. It failed to teach me much of any utility or freshness. Written almost entirely from journalistic sources, and based on a lot of interviews, it is a staid, standard, static analysis of racial politics, lacking originality and courage, as well as solid prose. Just to give you an example of what awaits you as a reader--her great analytic insight is "sandpaper politics". What's that? The friction that arises when one generation gives up power to the next, or one group takes power from another. Wow. Color me underwhelmed. If you have been reading magazine and newspaper coverage of the election of 2008, you will have nothing to learn from this book. The only virtue that this book has is the chapter length descriptions of some rising black politicians. These would make second tier Vanity Fair or New Yorker profiles, but you will learn somethings you don't know, I bet, about these figures. Also, you will find some astoundingly ignorant quotes from Andrew Young and Al Sharpton. The failure to distinguish (or even, aggressively critique their stupid comments) between a once-great like Young and a never-was like Sharpton is only one example of the lacunae herein. She never mentions the cynical exploitation of Sharpton's cupidity and narcissism by Republicans and Fox News, nor his execrable past statements and actions. This allows her to present him as a prominent voice in black politics without assessing what that says, and how it is figures like Sharpton who hold back mainstream black progress. She needn't agree with my conclusions, but there isn't even a mention of such issues. The Breakthrough is anything but an intellectual breakthrough.

[Crease · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let this review serve as an open letter to Ms. Gwen Ifill:

Ms. Ifill,

I found this book on Amazon for $4.00 USD...and I have never felt more guilty by a purchase. I owe you AT LEAST 20 more dollars.

The intimacy, skill and nuance with which you approach not just the subject of black politics in America but also the generational differences between those scions of the civil rights movement and todays "New Age" black politicians is outstanding. Each and every profile taught me something about the subjects that I had not known. And the quotes:

"When asked how he could still support affirmative action, I say "Cause I saw the affirmative action the other folks had for about two hundred years." - Retired, conservative four-star General Colin Powell

"When youre black, you're in uniform, you're not undercover." - Kendrick Meeks, African American Congressman from Florida

"We are a country borne of perfect principles but a savagely imperfect reality." Gwen Ifill, author

"Aspiring black leaders are often asked to transcend race, even though no one ever asked, say, Hillary Clinton to transcend gender. This is a precarious race straddle that most members of the breakthrough generation seem to reject. Even the most well meaning white Obama supporters seem to take deep satisfaction in this idea. Obama, they insisted, could be raceless, a reasurringly optimistic view of America's deepest burden that ignores countless peices of evidence to the contrary." - Gwen Ifill, author

The depth of your research for this book and quality of the interviews within have added 8 more books to my "to read" list. For that I thank you.

Feel free to reach out to me via Goodreads to collect what I should've paid for such an engaging book.

Crease

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gwen Ifill was an intelligent, thoughtful journalist and I was deeply saddened by her untimely death. When I had heard of her death, I wondered what her thoughts were after the outcome of the presidential election.

This book presented a thorough evaluation on race in politics, especially the differing views between young African American politicians and the civil rights leaders who were prominent in the 60s. The question remains unanswered as to whether America really has changed after President Obama' election. Gwen presents the perspective of both the younger and older generations evenly with many in depth interviews of prominent politicians, their family members, their teams and their competitors. She focuses on the successes of Corey Booker, Deval Patrick, Artur Davis and other up and coming politicians who will continue to strive toward a better future. Her book is very hopeful in some respects and yet realistic.

The chapter on race vs. gender in the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008 was very interesting and insightful. One of my wishes would be that Gwen would have been able to write a follow-up book on the breakthrough women have made in presidential politics, but that didn't happen in her lifetime.

[Glen Demers]

This is the book that got Ms. Ifill in trouble as she prepared to moderate the Vice presidential debate. All in all, it's less about Barack Obama and more about the new "Joshua generation" of African-American leaders. Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, NJ, Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts, Artur Davis, Alabama congressman in the House of Representatives and many others are profiled. This new group of politicians has not necessarily made the marches, fought to be served at lunch counters or been arrested for the cause of race. They are ambitious and unwilling to "wait their turn". Many of them have gotten elected in spite of objections from the Old Guard of black politicians, men like Rev. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Andrew Young and Louis Farrakhan, and accusations of not being black enough. Although race is and always will be an issue for them, it is not the central issue to their political careers. They are striving to better the lives of the people of their constituencies, regardless of color, as South Carolina State Representative Bakari Sellers states. “If you’re poor and black in South Carolina or poor and white in South Carolina, you face basically the same issues,” A well researched and thought-provoking book, it details the success and failures of African-American politicians as they deal with the issues that face them today.

[Fred Klein · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first in what is sure to be a plethora of President Obama-themed books.

This book is not so much about Obama as about the phenomenon of young black politicians entering the mainstream, and about how they are transplanting the earlier generation of civil rights activists.

It's an interesting book, well-written, and a quick read. Following up on the above review: I was never quite clear on what Ms. Ifill meant by "sandpaper politics", even though she referred to it repeatedly. I'm not sure if this is a term that Ms. Ifill has made up, or if it's commonly used in some circles, but I think it requires more definition than is provided in this book.

This book may be disappointing to those who are excited about the Obama presidency and want to hear more about him. There are many references to Obama and the 2008 election, but the book spends way more time providing profiles of other black politicians who are up-and-coming. You definitely get the feeling that there will be many more African-American presidential candidates in the future.

(There is a chapter on the conflict between race and gender. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing some female presidential candidates in the near future.)

[Kaara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introduction was fairly scattered and stream-of-consciousness, but once Ifill settled in to tell the stories she found, I was completely absorbed and interested. Her style is conversational, casual yet controlled, and detached, as a journalist should be, but with enough occasional passing personal commentary to remind the reader of Ifill's unique vantage point to the phenomenon she is exploring.

The two most interesting points she elaborated on, in my mind, had to do with a) the generation gap within the black political community (with the Civil Rights generation presenting formidable and prevalent challenges to young emerging black politicians, in most cases more than any racial gap among voters); and b) the painful characterization, for Obama and Clinton as well as for their supporters, of the presidential primary contest being so simple as Gender versus Race.

I first gave this three stars, and, by the time I got around to writing the review, changed it to four, which must mean the book stayed with me and continues to inform my understanding of the people profiled and situations discussed as I hear about them in the news or experience related events.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at the "post-civil rights" generation of African American politicians in light of Obama's primary and general election victories. In one chapter, Ms. Ifill looks at the issues the up-start generation of black pols had "snatching the torch" from the established civil rights leadership of the African American community. In another, she documents the internal conflict felt by many African American women during the 2008 Democratic primary of whether to cast a historic vote for Hillary Clinton (also known as the WOMAN married to the nation's "first black president", Bill Clinton) or Barack Obama (the would-be first African American president). Ifill also takes a good look at the internal "racial" concerns of African American voters who wonder if African American politicians are "black enough" and what that means, and the concerns of white voters who wonder if black candidates are "too black" and what that means. Along the way, Ifill also profiles Deval Patrick (governor of Massachusetts), Artur Davis (presumptive 2010 candidate for governor of Alabama), and Cory Booker (major of Newark, NJ).

[Continualknowledge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gwen Ifill gives a cursory overview of several "breakthrough" black politicians across the United States. By breakthrough she means those African Americans in positions across the country that we wouldn't expect to find black politicians (mayors, governors, and in some instances congressmen). Ifill mentions quite a few names that we would expect (Deval, Booker, Franklin and Sellars). She talks about how these politicians rose to power against the established Civil Rights politicians and this is in fact what makes them breakthrough. So in educating the public on these various politicians the book was good. But the book was lacking in that it didn't tackle issues of race and politics at the individual level and how racial issues are affected by politics and vice versa. We don't get into voter rights or gerrymandering but we do learn a little bit more about how those politicians came to be in there position. So if you want to learn what black politician is politicking where, then pick up the book. If you want to learn how politics affects race and how race affects politics, then pick up a different book.

[Minnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book from time to time when things settle down with my writing. I love it that I can look back from today's political scene and see what Gwen Ifill predicts in this book for the future of politics. What caught her off guard was the election of Barack Obama as President of the U.S.A. I have to say she wasn't the only one. And some folks are still trying to "get over it." IMO, politics is a stage play of comedy and tragedy and all politicians the actors. I think she captures that well. I based my opinion on past political jobs in many cities in the United States. What she writes about is most relevant about yesterday, as it is today, and what it posssibly will look like, if you can follow the trends. I can't say enough about Ms. Ifill's journalistic talents. Don't take my word for it. If you have a political bone in your body you will enjoy this book.

The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama

[Carol/Bonadie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Long a favorite new commentator of mine, Gwen Ifill is as sharp in print as she is on television. She uses the backdrop of the election of the first African American president to explore the dichotomy between the previous generation of civil rights activists (Jesse Jackson, Jr., Al Sharpton, Andrew Young, et al) and the current and up-and-coming generation of black activists and politicians (Harold Ford, Jr, Corey Booker, et al). She draws distinctions between the outlook of those steeped in the civil rights era, shaped by its proximity to overt and flagrant racism and discrimination, and the current generation whose understanding of the status of race in America begins after those early wrongs had already been righted. Ifill profiles 10 or so different personalities and through them makes her points. Her writing is succinct and she packs a lot into this short (as political analyses go) book. Highly recommend.

[Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this more than I did. Conceptually it's a good read: going over the rise of black politicians from names like Obama to Patrick to Booker, as well as some rising stars like Kamala Harris or Kasim Reed. The book also covers some bases like the intersection with gender as well.

But, overall the style is stilted and difficult to get through. There were a few chapters that I found interesting when discussing the successes and stumbles of African American politicians. But I found it boring overall and it was tough for it to hold my attention.

Definitely of interest for those who like to study US politics and elections or have an interest in any of the above names. But I didn't feel there was anything earth-shattering or particularly surprising. A pity, because I still remember it being promoted during the 2008 election. Would recommend you borrow it or buy it on the cheap if you need for a reference.

[Larry Zieminski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gwen Ifill's book is a very well written look at the current state of African-American politics. It highlights the current crop of black leaders and shows how they view themselves and their place in American politics. The most interesting aspect of the book is the apparent division between the civil rights era leaders and the current leaders, who view their roles differently. While Obama's election is a pivotal moment in race relations in America, the book doesn't really focus on him alone, but rather uses his election as a mirror for the other black leaders in the book. How do they view Obama? What does his election mean? What does that mean for their political future?

As a white male, I was very uninformed on this subject, but thankfully I can speak a little more confidently on the current generation of black leaders and what they stand for.

[Larisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gwen Ifill examines both old members and young members of politics who have made breakthroughs in their own right, and she leaves the reader thinking about how race will continue to play out as a factor in politics. Without pressing a singular opinion throughout the book, she presents both quotes and interviews from others establishing ground for us to form our own opinions and ideas.

Breakthrough is insightful and interesting, capturing a topic that would surely intrigue anyone living in the age of President Obama. The breakthrough, as the books is titled, didn't happen overnight but instead was the outcome of many long struggles fought by individuals in politics, from the civil rights movement up to recent years.