Barack Obama : political frontiers and racial agency / Ama Mazama, Molefi Kete Asante, editors.

Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction : the Barack Obama phenomenon : politics, symbol, and reality / Ama Mazama -- Deracializing Obama : white voters and the 2004 Illinois U.S. Senate race / David J. Andersen, Jane Junn -- Southern strategy 2.0 : conservatives, white voters, and the election of Barack Obama / Thomas Edge -- Turning out the center : racial politics and African agency in the Obama era / Philip S.S. Howard -- An immigrant's dream and The audacity of hope : the 2004 convention addresses of Barack Obama and Arnold Schwarzenegger / Babak Elahi and Grant Cos -- Obama's political philosophy : pragmatism, politics, and the University of Chicago / Bart Schultz -- Barack Obama and the politics of blackness / Ron Walters -- Barack Obama's Faustian bargain and the fight for America's racial soul / Christopher J. Metzler -- Facing Barack Hussein Obama : race, globalization, and transnational America / Radhika Parameswaran -- The audacity of hope / Dewey Clayton -- Obama and the white vote / Todd Donovan -- Obama : the new contours of power / Jerry Harris, Carl Davidson -- Barack Obama and the dilemma of power : an Africological observation / Molefi Kete Asante -- Obama's whiteness / Shawn Michelle Smith -- Perceptions of leadership and the challenge of Obama's blackness / Charlton D. McIlwain -- Barack Obama and the politics of race : the myth of postracism in America / Martell Teasley and David Ikard -- "The reality of American life has stayed from its myths" : Barack Obama's The audacity of hope and the discourse of the American reclamation jeremiad / Willie J. Harrell Jr.

Mazama and Asante explore the Obama era the confluence of the political, technological, social, economic, and religious dimensions of Obama s campaign, election, and presidency. Culled from hundreds of articles in journals across the social sciences in political science, sociology, African American studies, and communication--this illuminating collection deals with the complexities of the Obama phenomenon from critical research perspective, marking the era as a transformation brought about by a transitional leader. Part introductions offer needed framing and context to facilitate debate and discussion.