Description
CHOICE 1997 Outstanding Academic Books
This is the first comprehensive study of African American politics from the end of the 1960s civil rights era to the present. Not an optimistic book, it concludes that the black movement has been almost wholly encapsulated into mainstream institutions, co-opted, and marginalized. As a result, the author argues, African American leadership has become largely irrelevant in the development of organizations, strategies, and programs that would address the multifaceted problems of race in the post-civil rights era.
Meanwhile, the core black community has become increasingly segregated, and its society, economy, culture, and institutions of governance and uplift have decayed. In exhaustive detail Smith traces this sad state of affairs to certain internal attributes of African American political culture and institutional processes, and to the structure of American politics and its economic and cultural underpinnings. Sure to be controversial, this book challenges both liberal and conservative notions of the black political struggle in the United States. It will serve as a major reference for academic study and a point of departure for political activists.
About the Author
Robert C. Smith is Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University. He is the author of Black Leadership: A Survey of Theory and Research and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era: Now You See It, Now You Don't and coauthor (with Richard Seltzer) of Race, Class, and Culture: A Study of Afro-American Mass Opinion, the latter two published by SUNY Press. He has coedited two books, Urban Black Politics and Reflections on Black Leadership, and is associate editor of the National Political Science Review.
Reviews
"A thorough and well-written account of the decline of the civil rights movement. I hope it will contribute to the discussion of how to breathe new life into the movement." - John R. Howard, State University of New York, Purchase
"This is the broadest view and review of African American politics in the post-civil rights era of which I am aware. This makes for a very rich understanding of the era, and each of the organizations and policy issues Smith reviews. His work is a major contribution to the literature on African American politics." - Dianne Pinderhughes, University of Illinois
"Professor Robert C. Smith has produced a work the breadth and depth of which is an important milestone in the scholarship of black politics. In doing so, he teases out some of the most important questions in the field and, consequently, in the use of politics by the black community. Along the way, he produces gems of insight and theoretical importance." - Ronald W. Walters, from the Foreword
Book Information
ISBN 9780791431368
Author Robert C. Smith
Format Paperback
Page Count 416
Imprint State University of New York Press
Publisher State University of New York Press
Weight(grams) 572g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 25mm
This is the first comprehensive study of African American politics from the end of the 1960s civil rights era to the present. Not an optimistic book, it concludes that the black movement has been almost wholly encapsulated into mainstream institutions, co-opted, and marginalized. As a result, the author argues, African American leadership has become largely irrelevant in the development of organizations, strategies, and programs that would address the multifaceted problems of race in the post-civil rights era.
Meanwhile, the core black community has become increasingly segregated, and its society, economy, culture, and institutions of governance and uplift have decayed. In exhaustive detail Smith traces this sad state of affairs to certain internal attributes of African American political culture and institutional processes, and to the structure of American politics and its economic and cultural underpinnings. Sure to be controversial, this book challenges both liberal and conservative notions of the black political struggle in the United States. It will serve as a major reference for academic study and a point of departure for political activists.
About the Author
Robert C. Smith is Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University. He is the author of Black Leadership: A Survey of Theory and Research and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era: Now You See It, Now You Don't and coauthor (with Richard Seltzer) of Race, Class, and Culture: A Study of Afro-American Mass Opinion, the latter two published by SUNY Press. He has coedited two books, Urban Black Politics and Reflections on Black Leadership, and is associate editor of the National Political Science Review.
Reviews
"A thorough and well-written account of the decline of the civil rights movement. I hope it will contribute to the discussion of how to breathe new life into the movement." - John R. Howard, State University of New York, Purchase
"This is the broadest view and review of African American politics in the post-civil rights era of which I am aware. This makes for a very rich understanding of the era, and each of the organizations and policy issues Smith reviews. His work is a major contribution to the literature on African American politics." - Dianne Pinderhughes, University of Illinois
"Professor Robert C. Smith has produced a work the breadth and depth of which is an important milestone in the scholarship of black politics. In doing so, he teases out some of the most important questions in the field and, consequently, in the use of politics by the black community. Along the way, he produces gems of insight and theoretical importance." - Ronald W. Walters, from the Foreword
Book Information
ISBN 9780791431368
Author Robert C. Smith
Format Paperback
Page Count 416
Imprint State University of New York Press
Publisher State University of New York Press
Weight(grams) 572g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 25mm
