Fracture, JoyAnn Reid
Fracture, JoyAnn Reid
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Fracture
Barack Obama, the Clintons, and the Racial Divide

Author: Joy-Ann Reid

Narrator: Joy-Ann Reid

Unabridged: 10 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 09/08/2015


Synopsis

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.

About Joy-Ann Reid

Joy-Ann Reid is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Medgar and Myrlie, which won an NAACP Image Award. She hosted MSNBC’s prime-time show The ReidOut for five years, and she previously hosted AM Joy on weekends. Her other books include the New York Times bestseller The Man Who Sold America: Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story. The former managing editor of The Grio, Reid has had columns appearing in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Miami Herald, New York, and The Daily Beast. She lives in Maryland and Brooklyn.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Will on March 08, 2017

By forcing the party, and particularly his fellow southerners to reckon with the country’s ongoing racial strife, [Lyndon] Johnson had thrown open the doors to a growing and increasingly liberal and African American base. But he had also driven scores of white Democrats into the arms of the Repu......more

Goodreads review by Andre on February 13, 2016

A journalistic walk down Democratic Party history. Joy Ann Reid does a fantastic job of chronicling the transformation of the party from white southern conservatives to what we know it as today, the party of liberal multi-ethnics seen by many as the party of big government. She starts with 1964 and......more

Goodreads review by Kathy on March 02, 2016

Reading this gave me a great deal of insight concerning the Black vote since the Civil Rights Act in 1965. Well written and engaging. I learned that the Black vote is a two-edged sword for the Democratic party. Although the GOP has no trouble being the party of racists, the Democratic party must att......more

Goodreads review by Mark on December 28, 2016

Reid covers more than just the Obama and the Clintons, but also the major racial-political events of the last 53 years impacting presidential races. She unveils the struggles of the Democratic party as it tries to move forward in a more diverse world, while not alienating the white base that it need......more

Goodreads review by Darian on March 08, 2016

MSNBC author Obama cheerleader and Hilary apologists, but she does a decent job at surface level highlighting the history of the presidency and the politics since Truman and the shift in the Republican and Democratic platform. She fails on any level to analysis or offer a critique of Obama or HRC fo......more