Barack Obama's speech on the Edmund Pettus Bridge to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches should have represented the culmination of Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of racial unity. Yet, in Fracture, MSNBC national correspondent Joy-Ann Reid shows that, despite the progress we have made, we are still a nation divided—as seen recently in headline-making tragedies such as police killings of Black citizens and uprisings across the country.
With President Obama's election, Americans expected an open dialogue about race but instead discovered the irony of an African American president who seemed hamstrung when addressing racial matters, leaving many of his supporters disillusioned and his political enemies sharpening their knives. To understand why that is so, Reid examines the complicated relationship between Barack Obama and Bill and Hillary Clinton, and how their varied approaches to the race issue parallel the challenges facing the Democratic party itself: the disparate parts of its base and the whirl of shifting allegiances among its power players—and how this shapes the party and its hopes of retaining the White House.
Fracture traces the party's makeup and character regarding race from the civil rights days to the Obama presidency. Filled with key political players such as Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, and Al Sharpton, it provides historical context while addressing questions arising as we head into the next national election: Will Hillary Clinton's campaign represent an embrace of Obama's legacy or a repudiation of it? How is Hillary Clinton's stand on race both similar to and different from Obama's, or from her husband's? How do minorities view Mrs. Clinton, and will they line up in huge numbers to support her—and what will happen if they don't?
Veteran reporter Joy-Ann Reid investigates these questions and more, offering breaking news, fresh insight, and experienced insider analysis, mixed with fascinating behind-the-scenes drama, to illuminate three of the most important figures in modern political history, and how race can affect the crucial 2016 election and the future of America itself.
The Democratic Party has struggled for decades to settle its legacy as well as its future on the issue of race. In Fracture, MSNBC national correspondent Joy-Ann Reid brilliantly traces this saga from the early civil rights days through the presidency of Barack Obama, providing historical context and keen analysis about such figures as Jesse Jackson and Lyndon Johnson, Shirley Chisholm and John Lewis, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Al Sharpton. She addresses such questions as why President Obama was so hamstrung when addressing racial issues and how Hillary Clinton’s stand on race is both similar to and different from Obama’s, and from her husband’s. Reid also examines the disparate parts of the party’s base and the whirl of allegiances among its power players—and how that will affect its hopes of retaining its hold on electoral power in the future.
Offering breaking news, fresh insight, and experienced insider analysis, Reid illuminates three of the most important figures in modern political history, and how race can affect the crucial 2016 election and the future of America itself.
Updated with all-new material on recent political developments and the 2016 election cycle.
"Reid brilliantly mines well-known post-civil rights movement political 'moments' to illuminate the slow-shifting and all-too-often slyly static role of race in shaping the political landscape. ... And in the telling, she suggests we may yet choose to heal our fractured country."
