Reviews

KING: AFRICAN AMERICAN POLITICS

Kendra King's text captures the complex interaction between African Americans and US political institutions. It provides a deep understanding of the hopes and dreams of a population often left on the outside of American democracy and how that experience is critical to understanding American political institutions and politics. Students of African American politics in particular and American politics in general will be well served by reading this text.
Mark Sawyer, University of California

African American Politics is likely to be a very useful volume for students and for general readers seeking a context for understanding the Obama election and contemporary racial politics. The book elegantly melds mainstream political science ideas and topics with innovative themes, a sophisticated historical consciousness, and continued demonstration of the ways in which African American politics is, and is not, American politics tout court.
Jennifer L. Hochschild, Harvard University

Kendra King’s work carefully integrates a number of literatures in American politics, including political institutions, political theory, racial and ethnic politics, and offers faculty and students a complex portrait of the politics of African Americans in the 21st Century. She takes seriously the responsibility to explore a wide range of work, using legal analysis, the historical record, survey research, and economic data to offer a broader range of perspectives on Black political issues than is usually available. King’s African American Politics explores different approaches, including contemporary popular culture, to understand surprising outcomes such as the Obama presidential election and to consider its impact on the political status of the Black population. Her volume will be of use in classes on Black Politics for years to come.
Dianne Pinderhughes, University of Notre Dame

AOKI & TAKEDA: ASIAN AMERICAN POLITICS

Aoki and Takeda deserve a big round of applause for writing the first book on Asian American politics specifically for undergraduate teaching and learning.  Comprehensively researched and highly accessible, the book not only is well-positioned for classroom adoption but its framing of the search for identity within the political science literature helps opens the political science discipline to broader acceptance of scholarship on Asian Americans.
Pei-te Lien, University of California

Aoki and Takeda have masterfully written a superb textbook that captures and analyzes the dynamic impact of the fifteen million Asian Americans on United States politics and race relations. The voting patterns, social movements, elected officials, interracial coalitions and conflicts, and other major political activities of the rapidly growing and diverse Asian American population are presented in a lively, engaging, and highly readable manner. This is a cornerstone book for classes in American politics, race and ethnic studies, Asian American studies, and public policy.
Don Nakanishi, University of California, Los Angeles

Now, at last, we have a book that directly addresses the politics of, by, and for Asian Americans. It is long past due, and extremely welcome. Students, researchers, and activists alike are indebted to Aoki and Takeda.
Jennifer Hochschild, Harvard University

GARCÍA BEDOLLA: LATINO POLITICS

Bedolla has given us the determinant must-have resource for any student of Latino politics.   Insightful, theoretically sophisticated, well-researched, but also highly accessible, this book provides the most careful and complete analysis of Latinos’ political diversity, and of their growing significance in American politics.
Arlene Dávila, New York University

Latino Politics is a superb introduction to Latinos, race, immigration in the United States. Exceptionally clear and cogent, Garcia-Bedolla’s text is an excellent primer on Latinos in the 21st century, placing distinct national-origin groups in the context of their immigration history and structural constraints without losing sight of individual agency.
Michael Jones-Correa, Cornell University

In this ambitious volume, García Bedolla covers significant historical and theoretical ground, exploring the experiences of five Latino national-origin groups.  She skillfully connects US domestic politics with US foreign and economic policies in Latin America, providing readers with a more complete understanding of the factors driving Latino U.S. migration and political incorporation. This book is a must-read for students in Sociology, Political Science, Ethnic Studies, and those interested in better understanding the politics of immigration, immigrants, and the future of US politics.
Beatriz Manz, University of California, Berkeley