Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons, and the Racial Divide

The Democratic Party has struggled for decades to settle its legacy as well as its future on the issue of race. In Fracture, MSNBC national correspondent Joy-Ann Reid brilliantly traces this saga from the early civil rights days through the presidency of Barack Obama, providing historical context and keen analysis about such figures as Jesse Jackson and Lyndon Johnson, Shirley Chisholm and John Lewis, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Al Sharpton. She addresses such questions as why President Obama was so hamstrung when addressing racial issues and how Hillary Clinton’s stand on race is both similar to and different from Obama’s, and from her husband’s. Reid also examines the disparate parts of the party’s base and the whirl of allegiances among its power players—and how that will affect its hopes of retaining its hold on electoral power in the future.

Offering breaking news, fresh insight, and experienced insider analysis, Reid illuminates three of the most important figures in modern political history, and how race can affect the crucial 2016 election and the future of America itself.

Updated with all-new material on recent political developments and the 2016 election cycle.