"Charged with original insights and oriented by a thoughtful introduction, this volume’s essays combine historical imagination with analytical reason to probe American political development from the vantage of race. Learned and challenging, the book provokes thought, sharpens questions, and deepens knowledge."--Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University"Race and American Political Development performs an important intellectual and civic service. This collection of rich, discrete studies does not merely "read race into" American political development. It should alter how we think in general of that scholarly field and its purview."--Adolph Reed Jr, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania"This important volume places race at the center of political development in America. Leading lights and fresh voices in the field sweep across the history exploring new ways to think about the impact of racial division on the shape of the political order and the dynamics of its change. There is no better introduction to this subject, one of the massive facts of the American experience."--Stephen Skowronek, Pelatiah Perit Professor of Political and Social Science, Yale University"This excellent collection of diverse essays communicates an important truth about American political development--race has been, and continues to be, 'present at every critical moment.'"--S.E. Horn, Everett Community College