Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons, and the Racial Divide

by Joy-Ann Reid Narrated by Joy-Ann Reid

Overview

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 the killing of Trayvon Martin and the uprisings in Ferguson and Baltimore.

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.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

07/27/2015
Lay readers interested in the background of rifts within the Democratic party—both before and during the Obama administration—will find this concise summary from MSNBC correspondent Reid to be illuminating and accessible. Beginning with Lyndon Johnson’s efforts against discrimination, which culminated with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Reid traces the demographic shifts within the Democratic Party as Southern whites began to feel increasingly threatened by government policies. She highlights the significance of Jesse Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns anticipating Obama’s eventual successful one, then moves on to an overview of the Clinton administration and how its triangulation strategy alienated the party’s left wing. Reid pulls no punches in describing the disappointments some prominent African-Americans felt with the country’s first black president, and the tensions that emerged between centrist and liberal Democrats. Those looking for a refresher on the tensions of the 2008 Obama-Clinton primary battle, and their implications for the 2016 race, will find the salient points covered. Reid, despite her service as a Obama press aide in 2008, presents a balanced view of him and his administration’s internecine quarrels. (Sept.)

From the Publisher

Provocative and well-argued.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Illuminating and accessible. ... Reid pulls no punches... and presents a balanced view of [Obama] and his administration.” — Publishers Weekly

“Fascinating. ... A Compelling examination of racial issues in national politics.” — Shelf Awareness

“Every page... is alive with historical heft and context.” — South Florida Times

“Joy-Ann Reid exposes race as the San Andreas Fault of American politics. She exposes the white-black friction that’s propelled so much of our country’s debate, from Lincoln-Douglas to Obama-Clinton. Reid’s candid and tough chronicle nails it.” — Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews

“An instant classic of political journalism by one of the nation’s most gifted public intellectuals. Joy-Ann Reid offers a searing analysis of the Clintons and Obama in a brilliant work that is at once epic historical saga, gripping social thriller, astute frontline reportage, and edifying political tract.” — Michael Eric Dyson, author of the forthcoming The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America

“A profoundly necessary text. ... Takes on the ambitious task of connecting the contemporary Democratic Party to fifty years of fascinating and fast-paced historical change. ... If you plan to vote in 2016, you need to read Fracture.” — Melissa Harris-Perry, Presidential Endowed Chair in Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University and MSNBC host

“Joy Reid has written a book that we should all read. She lays out politics in a clear and concise fashion, and we can all learn from her honesty and conviction to get the politics of America right.” — Charles J. Ogletree Jr., Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and the Founder and Executive Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School

“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.” — Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

Shelf Awareness

Fascinating. ... A Compelling examination of racial issues in national politics.

Michael Eric Dyson

An instant classic of political journalism by one of the nation’s most gifted public intellectuals. Joy-Ann Reid offers a searing analysis of the Clintons and Obama in a brilliant work that is at once epic historical saga, gripping social thriller, astute frontline reportage, and edifying political tract.

Chris Matthews

Joy-Ann Reid exposes race as the San Andreas Fault of American politics. She exposes the white-black friction that’s propelled so much of our country’s debate, from Lincoln-Douglas to Obama-Clinton. Reid’s candid and tough chronicle nails it.

Charles J. Ogletree Jr.

Joy Reid has written a book that we should all read. She lays out politics in a clear and concise fashion, and we can all learn from her honesty and conviction to get the politics of America right.

Sherrilyn Ifill

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.

South Florida Times

Every page... is alive with historical heft and context.

Melissa Harris-Perry

A profoundly necessary text. ... Takes on the ambitious task of connecting the contemporary Democratic Party to fifty years of fascinating and fast-paced historical change. ... If you plan to vote in 2016, you need to read Fracture.

Stephanie Garber

Provocative and well-argued.

Library Journal

01/01/2014
MSNBC correspondent Reid, a press aide to Barack Obama's Florida campaign in 2008, charts the split in the Democratic Party owing to the rivalry between Obama and Hillary Clinton and considers how it might affect the 2016 presidential elections. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Kirkus Reviews

2015-07-15
An exploration of the relationship between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, proving to be salutary reading for anyone who still believes that we live in a post-racial society.Recent events in South Carolina, Missouri, Florida, and elsewhere would suggest that we're going backward when it comes to matters of race and ethnicity. Against this backdrop, the Republican mainstream in particular has made hay of white resentment over supposed favoritism, in the form of affirmative action and other measures, meant to "add economic stability to the...basic rights for African Americans (and poor whites)," as MSNBC correspondent Reid observes. Against this divided politics, it's small wonder that "Democrats are the only ball game" for African-Americans, the product of a generational shift that began with Lyndon Johnson's civil rights programs of the 1960s, which he recognized would drive Southern voters into the arms of a welcoming GOP. Before Johnson, writes the author, only Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal had done much to "lift large swaths of African Americans out of despair," further disposing African-American voters to the Democratic cause. All that said, as Reid shows, Obama, a beneficiary of both Democratic-backed civil rights measures and of African-American votes, has seemingly been strangely reluctant to engage in discussions of race. A case in point, writes the author, is the upswelling of GOP efforts to strengthen voter ID requirements, "just one weapon Republican state legislatures and governors could use against minority voters." Obama offered only modest assurances that if voters wished to vote, they would find ways to prevail. Reid's book slightly precedes a shift in Obama's tone following the Charleston shootings, so some of her conclusions may require modest updating, but her point remains important: the racial divide persists, and Clinton, the presumptive Democratic candidate in 2016, will have to court African-American voters while delicately maintaining some distance from Obama in the eyes of white voters. Provocative and well-argued with plenty of clues on what to watch for in the coming presidential race.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170383375
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	09/08/2015
Edition description:	Unabridged

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