The day before the election, the author sent First these two pieces, which he rightly believed would be “relevant however the vote turns out.” In the interval since the election, he updated the second piece here to take account of Romney’s defeat. Race and the Presidency When Obama came into office, there were hopes of a … Read more

In Johnstown, Pennsylvania, which is about three hundred miles from Brooklyn, you can buy much-prized if misnamed Coney Island hot dogs for lunch. I can remember my father-in-law reminiscing about the boxer Jack Johnson pulling up in a vast limousine before the unprepossessing Coney Island Hot Dogs, so that he could escort his white wife … Read more

It was Election Day morning, a week and a day after Hurricane Sandy had wreaked havoc on the tri-state area – seventy-two hours since my home’s electrical power had been restored – and there was what the local television forecasters called an “unseasonable” chill in the Canarsie, Brooklyn air. November nippiness or not, there was … Read more

First writers and readers comment on the debates and/or the election. Of Debatable Significance By Bob Levin The author sent in this (prophetic) comment a few hours before the second debate. Barack Obama’s sleepwalk through the first debate left me recalling Jimmy Carter. That’s Jimmy Carter, the lightweight champ, not Jimmy Carter, the president. Back … Read more

“Gus Hall.” My mother stood in front of a single line of aging men in ill-fitting suits. She had been summoned to the small, wood-paneled conference room that sat above the town’s single jail cell in Boro Hall, summoned to explain herself to the local school board. It all started with a sixth-grade civics experiment. … Read more

Rachel Swarns, American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White and Multracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama (New York, 2012) When Alex Haley published Roots thirty-six years ago, it proved to be a sensation for black and white Americans alike. For African Americans, Roots made the search for ancestors and ancestral stories one which could affirm … Read more

Michael Grunwald, The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era (New York, 2012) “But we also believe in something called citizenship.” As thunderous applause rolled across the Charlotte arena, President Barack Obama insisted that citizenship was at “the very essence of our democracy…that the country only works when we accept … Read more