The Speech: Race and Barack Obama's 'A More Perfect Union'


After Senator Barack Obama delivered his celebrated speech, "A More Perfect Union," on March 18, 2008, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd noted that only Barack Obama "could alchemize a nuanced 40-minute speech on race into must-see YouTube viewing for 20-year-olds." Pundits established the speech's historical eminence with comparisons to Abraham Lincoln's "A House Divided" and Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream." The future president had addressed one of the biggest issues facing his campaign-and our country-with an eloquence and honesty rarely before heard on a national stage.


The Speech brings together a distinguished lineup of writers and thinkers-among them Adam Mansbach, Alice Randall, Connie Schultz, and William Julius Wilson -in a multifaceted exploration of Obama's address. Their original essays examine every aspect of the speech-literary, political, social, and cultural-and are punctuated by Boston Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson's reportage on the issue of race in the now historic 2008 campaign. The Speech memorializes and gives full due to a speech that propelled Obama toward the White House, and prompted a nation to evaluate our imperfect but hopeful union.

1101904691
The Speech: Race and Barack Obama's 'A More Perfect Union'


After Senator Barack Obama delivered his celebrated speech, "A More Perfect Union," on March 18, 2008, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd noted that only Barack Obama "could alchemize a nuanced 40-minute speech on race into must-see YouTube viewing for 20-year-olds." Pundits established the speech's historical eminence with comparisons to Abraham Lincoln's "A House Divided" and Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream." The future president had addressed one of the biggest issues facing his campaign-and our country-with an eloquence and honesty rarely before heard on a national stage.


The Speech brings together a distinguished lineup of writers and thinkers-among them Adam Mansbach, Alice Randall, Connie Schultz, and William Julius Wilson -in a multifaceted exploration of Obama's address. Their original essays examine every aspect of the speech-literary, political, social, and cultural-and are punctuated by Boston Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson's reportage on the issue of race in the now historic 2008 campaign. The Speech memorializes and gives full due to a speech that propelled Obama toward the White House, and prompted a nation to evaluate our imperfect but hopeful union.

10.99 In Stock
The Speech: Race and Barack Obama's 'A More Perfect Union'

The Speech: Race and Barack Obama's 'A More Perfect Union'

by T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting
The Speech: Race and Barack Obama's 'A More Perfect Union'

The Speech: Race and Barack Obama's 'A More Perfect Union'

by T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting

eBook

$10.99  $14.40 Save 24% Current price is $10.99, Original price is $14.4. You Save 24%.

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers

LEND ME® See Details

Overview



After Senator Barack Obama delivered his celebrated speech, "A More Perfect Union," on March 18, 2008, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd noted that only Barack Obama "could alchemize a nuanced 40-minute speech on race into must-see YouTube viewing for 20-year-olds." Pundits established the speech's historical eminence with comparisons to Abraham Lincoln's "A House Divided" and Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream." The future president had addressed one of the biggest issues facing his campaign-and our country-with an eloquence and honesty rarely before heard on a national stage.


The Speech brings together a distinguished lineup of writers and thinkers-among them Adam Mansbach, Alice Randall, Connie Schultz, and William Julius Wilson -in a multifaceted exploration of Obama's address. Their original essays examine every aspect of the speech-literary, political, social, and cultural-and are punctuated by Boston Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson's reportage on the issue of race in the now historic 2008 campaign. The Speech memorializes and gives full due to a speech that propelled Obama toward the White House, and prompted a nation to evaluate our imperfect but hopeful union.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781608191499
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date: 07/23/2010
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 272
File size: 2 MB

About the Author


T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting is the director of Vanderbilt University's Program in African American and Diaspora Studies and the W. T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies. She is the author of four books, including the award-winning Pimps Up, Ho's Down, and the editor or coeditor of five others, most recently The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.


T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting is the director of Vanderbilt University's Program in African American and Diaspora Studies and the W. T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies. She is the author of four books, including the award-winning Pimps Up, Ho's Down, and the editor or coeditor of five others, most recently The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.

Table of Contents

Chloroform Morning Joe! 1

Introduction T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting

Race and Barack Obama's "A More Perfect Union"

Wright Stuff, Wrong Time, Part I Derrick Z. Jackson 19

Obama and the Generational Challenge Omar H. Ali 25

Living the Dream Keli Goff 40

Black Like Barack Joan Morgan 55

The Audacity of Post-Racism Adam Mansbach 69

Between Expediency and Conviction: What We Mean When We Say "Post-Racial" Bakari Kitwana 85

His Grandmother, My Father, Your Uncle Connie Schultz 102

Nuanced Genius, Part II Derrick Z. Jackson 113

L'Effet Obama: Diversity and "A More Perfect Republic" Dominic Thomas 119

Why Obama's Race Speech Is a Model for the Political Framing of Race and Poverty William Julius Wilson 132

A Belief in the Unseen: A Nation Still at Risk Gilman W. Whiting 142

A More Perfect (High-Tech) Lynching: Obama, the Press, and Jeremiah Wright Obery M. Hendricks Jr. 155

"It's Been a Long Time Comin, but Our Change Done Come" Geneva Smitherman 184

Barack in the Dirty, Dirty South Alice Randall 205

Mutt on CP Time, Discipline of Malcolm, Part III Derrick Z. Jackson 224

The Speech

A More Perfect Union Senator Barack Obama 237

About the Contributors 253

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews