Georgia A. Persons – författare

Contradictory forces are at play at the close of the twentieth century. There is a growing closeness of peoples fueled by old and new technologies of modern aviation, digital-based communications, new patterns of trade and commerce, and growing affluence of significant portions of the world''s population. Television permits individuals around the world to learn about the cultures and lifestyles of peoples of physically distant lands. These developments give real meaning to the notion of a global village. Peoples of the world are growing closer in new and increasingly important ways.

Nonetheless, there are disturbing signs of a growing awareness of ethnic differences in all parts of the world the United States included and a concomitant rise in ethnic-based conflicts, many of them extraordinarily violent in nature. Fear, resentment, intoler-ance, and mistreatment of the "other" abound in world news accounts. Not only does this phenomenon pose an interesting juxtaposition to the concept of the emergent glo-bal village, but its emergence in the post-cold war era internationally and the post-civil rights era in the United States raises significant and compelling questions. Why are such conflicts occurring now? How do analysts explain these developments?

The essays in Race and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective lucidly explore some of the complexities of the persistence and re-emergence of race and ethnicity as major lines of divisiveness around the world. Contributors analyze manifestations of race-based movements for political empowerment in Europe and Latin America as well as racial intolerance in these same settings. Attention is also given to the conceptual complexi-ties of multidimensional and shared cultural roots of the overlapping phenomena of ethnicity, nationalism, identity, and ideology. The book greatly informs discussions of race and ethnicity in the international context and provides an interesting perspective against which to view America''s changing problem of race. Race and Ethnicity in Com-parative Perspective is a timely, thought-provoking volume that will be of immense value to ethnic studies specialists, African American studies scholars, political scientists, his-torians, and sociologists.

Contradictory forces are at play at the close of the twentieth century. There is a growing closeness of peoples fueled by old and new technologies of modern aviation, digital-based communications, new patterns of trade and commerce, and growing affluence of significant portions of the world''s population. Television permits individuals around the world to learn about the cultures and lifestyles of peoples of physically distant lands. These developments give real meaning to the notion of a global village. Peoples of the world are growing closer in new and increasingly important ways.

Nonetheless, there are disturbing signs of a growing awareness of ethnic differences in all parts of the world the United States included and a concomitant rise in ethnic-based conflicts, many of them extraordinarily violent in nature. Fear, resentment, intoler-ance, and mistreatment of the "other" abound in world news accounts. Not only does this phenomenon pose an interesting juxtaposition to the concept of the emergent glo-bal village, but its emergence in the post-cold war era internationally and the post-civil rights era in the United States raises significant and compelling questions. Why are such conflicts occurring now? How do analysts explain these developments?

The essays in Race and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective lucidly explore some of the complexities of the persistence and re-emergence of race and ethnicity as major lines of divisiveness around the world. Contributors analyze manifestations of race-based movements for political empowerment in Europe and Latin America as well as racial intolerance in these same settings. Attention is also given to the conceptual complexi-ties of multidimensional and shared cultural roots of the overlapping phenomena of ethnicity, nationalism, identity, and ideology. The book greatly informs discussions of race and ethnicity in the international context and provides an interesting perspective against which to view America''s changing problem of race. Race and Ethnicity in Com-parative Perspective is a timely, thought-provoking volume that will be of immense value to ethnic studies specialists, African American studies scholars, political scientists, his-torians, and sociologists.

In the past, African American aspirations for political offi ce were assumed to be limited to areas with sizeable black population bases. By and large, black candidates have rarely been successful in statewide or national elections. This has been attributed to several factors: limited resources available to African American candidates, or identifi cation with a black liberationist ideological thrust. Other factors have been a relatively small and spatially concentrated primary support base of black voters, and the persistent resistance of many white voters to support black candidates.

For these reasons, the possibility of black candidates winning elections to national offi ce was presumably just a dream. Conventional wisdom conceded a virtual cap on both the possible number of black elected officials and the level of elective offi ce to which they could ascend. But objective political analysis has not always made sufficient allowances for the more universal phenomenon of individual political ambitions. Th e contributors to this volume explore the ways ambitious individuals identifi ed and seized upon strategies that are expanding the boundaries of African American electoral politics.

This volume is anchored by a symposium that focuses on new possibiities in African American politics. Both the electoral contests of 2006 and the Barack Obama presidential campaign represent an emergent dynamic in American electoral politics. Analysts are beginning to agree that the contours of social change now make the electoral successes of black candidates who are perceived as ideologically and culturally mainstream increasingly likely. The debate captured in this volume will likely inspire further scholarly inquiry into the changing nature and dimensions of the larger dynamic of race in American politics and the subsequent changing political fortunes of African American candidates.

In the past, African American aspirations for political offi ce were assumed to be limited to areas with sizeable black population bases. By and large, black candidates have rarely been successful in statewide or national elections. This has been attributed to several factors: limited resources available to African American candidates, or identifi cation with a black liberationist ideological thrust. Other factors have been a relatively small and spatially concentrated primary support base of black voters, and the persistent resistance of many white voters to support black candidates.

For these reasons, the possibility of black candidates winning elections to national offi ce was presumably just a dream. Conventional wisdom conceded a virtual cap on both the possible number of black elected officials and the level of elective offi ce to which they could ascend. But objective political analysis has not always made sufficient allowances for the more universal phenomenon of individual political ambitions. Th e contributors to this volume explore the ways ambitious individuals identifi ed and seized upon strategies that are expanding the boundaries of African American electoral politics.

This volume is anchored by a symposium that focuses on new possibiities in African American politics. Both the electoral contests of 2006 and the Barack Obama presidential campaign represent an emergent dynamic in American electoral politics. Analysts are beginning to agree that the contours of social change now make the electoral successes of black candidates who are perceived as ideologically and culturally mainstream increasingly likely. The debate captured in this volume will likely inspire further scholarly inquiry into the changing nature and dimensions of the larger dynamic of race in American politics and the subsequent changing political fortunes of African American candidates.

This volume of the National Political Science Review, the official publication of the National Political Science Association, is anchored by a major symposium on The Politics of the Black "Nation," the book authored by Matthew Holden in 1973, which is now considered one of the most influential books in the field of black politics. Twenty-five years provide a sufficient timespan on which to base a retrospective of the book and simultaneously to reflect upon the evolution of the black liberation struggle, more formally called, African American politics. In the present age, there is not much talk about "a black nation," certainly not as was heard during the 1960s and mid-1970s. Yet there is a persistent sense of separateness in that there is constant thought and talk of "Black America" as a significantly separate communal entity. Black Americans are seen as a racially and culturally distinct community holding to social, political, economic interests which have special significance and poignancy for them. Holden''s perception of the nature of the times in the early seventies stands in sharp contrast to how contemporary analysts of African American politics tend to perceive the nature of African Americans'' role in political life and their position in American society in the present age. In this retrospective, readers have the opportunity to get a sense of what Holden argued of the seven essays that make up his seminal volume and to consider how well Holden''s observations have stood the tests of time. In addition to the essays presented at the symposium, which pointedly discuss Holden''s work, there are essays dealing with "African American Politics in Constancy and Change," by contributors including Charles Henry, David Covin, Robert C. Smith, Clyde Lusane, Cheryl Miller, D''Linell Finley, and Sekou Franklin, among others. Other features are a highly informative discussion of the Literary Digest magazine''s Straw-Vote Presidential Polls, 1916-1936, and a

This volume of the National Political Science Review, the official publication of the National Political Science Association, is anchored by a major symposium on The Politics of the Black "Nation," the book authored by Matthew Holden in 1973, which is now considered one of the most influential books in the field of black politics. Twenty-five years provide a sufficient timespan on which to base a retrospective of the book and simultaneously to reflect upon the evolution of the black liberation struggle, more formally called, African American politics. In the present age, there is not much talk about "a black nation," certainly not as was heard during the 1960s and mid-1970s. Yet there is a persistent sense of separateness in that there is constant thought and talk of "Black America" as a significantly separate communal entity. Black Americans are seen as a racially and culturally distinct community holding to social, political, economic interests which have special significance and poignancy for them. Holden''s perception of the nature of the times in the early seventies stands in sharp contrast to how contemporary analysts of African American politics tend to perceive the nature of African Americans'' role in political life and their position in American society in the present age. In this retrospective, readers have the opportunity to get a sense of what Holden argued of the seven essays that make up his seminal volume and to consider how well Holden''s observations have stood the tests of time. In addition to the essays presented at the symposium, which pointedly discuss Holden''s work, there are essays dealing with "African American Politics in Constancy and Change," by contributors including Charles Henry, David Covin, Robert C. Smith, Clyde Lusane, Cheryl Miller, D''Linell Finley, and Sekou Franklin, among others. Other features are a highly informative discussion of the Literary Digest magazine''s Straw-Vote Presidential Polls, 1916-1936, and a