Obama's Race: The 2008 Election and the Dream of a Post-Racial America

Chicago Studies in American Politics

by Michael Tesler, David O. Sears

Barack Obama’s presidential victory naturally led people to believe that the United States might finally be moving into a post-racial era. Obama’s Race—and its eye-opening account of the role played by race in the election—paints a dramatically different picture.

The authors argue that the 2008 election was more polarized by racial attitudes than any other presidential election on record—and perhaps more significantly, that there were two sides to this racialization: resentful opposition to and racially liberal support for Obama. As Obama’s campaign was given a boost in the primaries from racial liberals that extended well beyond that usually offered to ideologically similar white candidates, Hillary Clinton lost much of her longstanding support and instead became the preferred candidate of Democratic racial conservatives. Time and again, voters’ racial predispositions trumped their ideological preferences as John McCain—seldom described as conservative in matters of race—became the darling of racial conservatives from both parties. Hard-hitting and sure to be controversial, Obama’s Race will be both praised and criticized—but certainly not ignored.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Race

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Sarah Taffet]

Another book I had to read for class and for my final project. Yay school!

[May · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this for my seminar, "Playing the Race Card: Thee Role of Race in Presidential Campaigns, 1948-Present." This book makes me never want to consider any work in political science. Extremely dense reading covering very minute details. Maybe if you're really into polisci, you might enjoy this book, but for me, this book has been the bane of my existence and my GPA.