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At a time when race remains a divisive issue, Promises to Keep offers a compelling analysis of how conflict over African Americans' place in American society has shaped the Constitution, law, and Americans' understanding of citizenship and rights. Engaging and accessible, yet based on the latest scholarship, it shows how African Americans have played a critical role in transforming the Constitution from a bulwark of slavery to a document that is truer to the
nation's promise of equality. Comprehensive in scope, Promises moves from debates over slavery at the nation's founding to contemporary discussions of affirmative action, voting rights, mass incarceration, and police brutality. In the process, it provides readers with a historical perspective critical to
understanding some of today's most compelling issues.
About the author
Donald G. Nieman is Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at Binghamton University, State University of New York. He is the author or editor of six books, including the first edition of Promises to Keep (Oxford).
Summary
Widely considered the first history of US Constitutionalism that places African Americans at the center, Promises to Keep is a compelling overview of how conflict over African Americans' place in American society has shaped the Constitution, law, and our understanding of citizenship and rights. Both authoritative and accessible, this revised and expanded second edition incorporates key insights from the last three decades of scholarship and makes sense of recent developments in civil rights, from the War on Drugs to the rise of Black Lives Matter. Promises to Keep shows how African Americans have played a critical role in transforming the Constitution from a bulwark of slavery to a document that is truer to the nation's promise of equality. The book begins by examining debates about race from the Revolutionary Era at the Constitutional Convention and covers the establishment of civil rights protections during Reconstruction, the Jim Crow backlash, and the evolution of the civil rights movement, from the formation of the National Association for the Advancement for Colored People to legal victories and massive organized protests. Comprehensive in scope, this book moves from debates over slavery at the nation's founding to contemporary discussions of affirmative action, voting rights, mass incarceration, and police brutality. In the process, it provides readers with a historical perspective critical to understanding some of today's most important social and political issues.
Additional text
This is a remarkable and valuable book. Donald Nieman has maintained the high quality of the original volume, while bringing his account into the Age of Trump. The original edition was published after a period of civil rights retrenchment. This volume follows the elections of our first African-American president, and our first modern racist president. Nieman sets this double-whammy into a clear historical context, and helps us to understand why getting race right is essential to constitutional order in the United States.
