The Presidency and the Politics of Racial Inequality - Nation Keeping from 1831 to 1965

Erscheinungsjahr 1999
ISBN: 978-0-231-10723-5
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 400 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 154 mm x 225 mm, Gewicht: 550 g

Reihe: Power, Conflict, and Democracy: American Politics Into the 21st Century

From the abolition of slavery to the civil rights movement one hundred years later, one of the primary characteristics of America's development as a nation has been the steady struggle for and expansion of the horizons of citizenship. Pivotal in any equal rights movement is the response of the White House: how the president addresses any such movement profoundly affects its chances for success. Russell L. Riley examines the logic of presidential behavior with regard to equality movements. Focusing on the most explosive and enduring of such movements--the struggle for social and economic parity by African Americans--Riley argues that the president's unwritten mandate as the designated protector of domestic social order is to suppress or moderate major social change.

Consequently, only in extreme circumstances have presidents become advocates of serious reform. The Presidency and the Politics of Racial Inequality goes beyond the triad of Lincoln, Kennedy, and Johnson with discussions of F.D.R., Truman, and Eisenhower to see how these presidents dealt with situations that forced them into the fray. Riley questions the positive role played by some presidents--and contends that their failure to suppress racial unrest has not been adequately discussed.As Riley convincingly demonstrates, American political culture made it unlikely that any president would invest executive power in a deeply controversial enterprise. His study goes far toward explaining why significant change has been slow to take hold, even in one of the most open democratic systems in the world.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Riley, Russell L.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Zentralregierung
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Menschenrechte, Bürgerrechte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

IntroductionPart One: Abolition Chapter 1. The Origins and Politics of AbolitionChapter 2. A Thirty Years "War'': The Presidency and the AbolitionistsChapter 3. The Making of a Great EmancipatorPart Two: Civil Rights Chapter 4. From Reconstruction to the Great Depression: Latency YearsChapter 5. The Rise of Black Political Power: Roosevelt and TrumanChapter 6. Race Returns to Center Stage: The Eisenhower YearsChapter 7. Emancipation Act II: Pressures and Conversion 1961--1965Chapter 8. The Presidency Leadership, and Racial Equality: An Overview

Über Autor(innen)

Russell L. Riley holds a Ph.D. in American government from the University of Virginia, and has taught on the faculties of Georgetown University and the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently program director for the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, Salzburg, Austria.