Barack Obama and the Myth of a Post-Racial America
Routledge Series on Identity Politics Series

The 2008 presidential election was celebrated around the world as a seminal moment in U.S. political and racial history. White liberals and other progressives framed the election through the prism of change, while previously acknowledged demographic changes were hastily heralded as the dawn of a "post-racial" America. However, by 2011, much of the post-election idealism had dissipated in the wake of an on-going economic and financial crisis, escalating wars in Afghanistan and Libya, and the rise of the right-wing Tea Party movement.

By placing Obama in the historical context of U.S. race relations, this volume interrogates the idealized and progressive view of American society advanced by much of the mainstream literature on Obama. Barack Obama and the Myth of a Post-Racial America takes a careful look at the historical, cultural and political dimensions of race in the United States, using an interdisciplinary analysis that incorporates approaches from history, political science, and sociology. Each chapter addresses controversial issues such as whether Obama can be considered an African-American president, whether his presidency actually delivered the kind of deep-rooted changes that were initially prophesised, and whether Obama has abandoned his core African-American constituency in favour of projecting a race-neutral approach designed to maintain centrist support.

Through cutting edge, critically informed, and cross-disciplinary analyses, this collection directly addresses the dimensions of race in American society through the lens of Obama?s election and presidency.

Introduction: A Dream Deferred?; Kevern J. Verney. 1. Barack Obama, First African American President: Continuity or Change; Mark Ledwidge 2. The Obama Dilemma: Confronting Race in the 21st Century; Carl Pedersen 3. Republican Mavericks: The Anti-Obama Impulse in the 2008 Election; Robert Busby 4. Obama in the Northeast: Race and Electoral Politics in America’s Bluest Region; Kevin J. McMahon 5. Backlash: Racism and the Presidency of Barack Obama; Heidi Beirich and Evelyn Schlatter 6.Barack Obama and the Future of American Racial Politics; Rogers M. Smith and Desmond S. King 7. 'The Final Frontier': Barack Obama and the Vision of a Post-Racial America; Kevern J. Verney 8. Still Mariachi Politics: Latinos and the Obama Administration; Lisa García Bedolla 9. You Say Obama, I say Osama, Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off: Race and U.S. Foreign Policy; Lee Marsden 10. The Color of Obama’s World: Race and Democracy during the Barack Obama Administration; Michael L. Krenn. Postscript: The 2012 Elections: President Obama’s Establishment; Inderjeet Parmar. The Im/possibility of Barack Hussain Obama; Nirmal Puwar and Sanjay Sharma. Mormonism and the 2012 Presidential Election; Lee Marsden

Mark Ledwidge, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and American Studies, has been appointed Vacation Visiting Research Fellow at the prestigious Rothermere American Institute (RAI), University of Oxford. Dr Ledwidge, who is also a founding member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council Network on the Presidency of Barack Obama, researches the relationship and impact of African-Americans on U.S. foreign policy. It provides a unique insight into the effect race and ethnicity has had upon U.S. foreign policy, as well as highlighting how race has been relatively excluded from mainstream theories in international relations.

Kevern Verney is a Professor in American History and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Edge Hill University in the United Kingdom. Together with Professor Inderjeet Parmar and Dr Mark Ledwidge he is currently a co-organizer of the Barack Obama Research Network funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Other Network partners include the University of Warwick and the University of Middleburg in the Netherlands.

Inderjeet Parmar currently teaches in the Department of International Politics at City University London, having for the previous 21 years taught at the University of Manchester. His latest book, Foundations of the American Century: Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller Foundations in the Rise of American Power was published in 2012 by Columbia University Press. He is President of the British International Studies Association and Chair of the Obama Research Network.