The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress

A trenchant and timeless examination of the still-contested meanings of President Barack Obama's election, from a preeminent scholar of race, politics, and American history-with a new introduction by the author.When voters in 2008 chose the United States' first black president, some Americans hailed the event as a sign that the nation had, at long last, transcended its bloody history of racial inequality.

Obama's victory was indescribably momentous, but if the intervening years proved anything, it is that we never leave history entirely behind.