The University Press of Florida has announced the release of Winning While Losing: Civil Rights, the Conservative Movement, and the Presidency from Nixon to Obama, a collection of essays edited by Kenneth Osgood and Derrick E. White. The Press describes the collection as follows:
During the four decades separating the death of Martin Luther King and the election of Barack Obama, the meaning of civil rights became increasingly complex. Civil rights leaders made great strides in breaking down once-impermeable racial barriers, but they also suffered many political setbacks in their attempts to remedy centuries of discrimination. Complicating matters, the conservative turn in American political life transformed the national conversation about race and civil rights in surprising ways.A few blurbs:
This pioneering collection of essays explores the paradoxical nature of civil rights politics in the years following the 1960s civil rights movement by chronicling the ways in which presidential politics both advanced and constrained the quest for racial equality in the United States.
"Eschewing easy absolutes, Winning While Losing presents a carefully nuanced interpretation of the subtle gains and losses experienced by liberals and conservatives, by Democrats and Republicans, and by proponents of racial justice and their opponents."--Harvard Sitkoff
"A comprehensive account of the links between racism, conservatism, and presidential politics in the post-civil rights era."--Greta de JongLHB readers may be particularly interested in the contributions by Mary Frances Berry (University of Pennsylvania) ("Ronald Reagan and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights: Battles Won and Wars Lost") and Charles Zelden (Nova Southeastern) ("Old Vinegar in a New Bottle: Vote Denial in the 2000 Presidental Election and Beyond").
