For many of the electrified supporters and much of the stunned world, Barack Obama's election to US President appeared suddenly and without warning. The starstruck nation promptly closed the door on its uncomfortable past and opened the gates to a seemingly colour-blind future. However, as Obama himself acknowledged during the campaign, the unthinkable possibility of a black President was not of his own making but grew out of the cumulative efforts of scores of other African Americans who had challenged the system long before by daring to pursue presidential nomination. This defining historical event will undoubtedly go on to inspire a rich array of analyses and debate. What makes African Americans and the Presidency essential reading is that it presents groundbreaking scholarly work which will set the benchmark for future analyses. There will not be another “first black President” but, as the editors’ foreword reiterates, Obama was not the first to fight for nomination and thus this compendium is both timely and interesting.

Editors Glasrud and Wintz have judiciously woven together their chapters on individuals with those providing the contextual cultural narratives of the Socialist Workers Party (Goldstone), the Communist Party (Cullen & Wilkison), fringe parties (Cook) and the civil rights movement (Van Delinder). Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, eminent scholars explore fascinating stories examining individuals who tried to force the system to be more responsive to the needs of a multiethnic society: from Fredrick Douglass (Glasrud), through Charlotta A. Bass (Wedin), Shirley Chisholm (Jones), Jesse Jackson (Smallwood), and Lenora Fulani (Ali) to Colin Powell (Wintz) and finally Obama (Finkelman). The argument follows that an activist movement can result in a presidential candidate such as Jackson, and equally an individual like Fulani can inspire an activist movement – a contention that indeed can be challenged but which nevertheless stands up on its own merit within the context of this book.

The collection is notable for including some exceptional and profoundly engaging writing. In Jones's, Ali's and Cook's chapters, Chisholm, Fulani and other black independent candidates come alive. Furthermore, the review by Walton et al. is both detailed and intellectually rewarding in the way it uses charts to quantify and qualify its argument. At the same time the wide-ranging coverage and numerous authors adopting differing perspectives sometimes lack a coherence which would otherwise make a reading in a single sitting a more fulfilling experience. In an effort to limit this problem, Glasrud and Wintz open the book with a summary timeline starting from the National Negro Convention in 1830 to 2009 and the inauguration of Barack Obama. The often single-line entries on this timeline still manage to fill five pages, and plotting the ebb and flow of the social milieux that surrounded these ephemeral presidential pretenders is thus gratifyingly unpretentious and helpful.

Many of the names that are the subject of the early chapters remain obscure and unknown to the majority of American voters but are remarakable for their courage and perseverance, which irrevocably altered the way Americans define the most powerful office in the country. The book admirably shows that Obama did not exist in a political vacuum but inherited a long legacy of African American activism, presidential ambitions and a desire to “shake things up a little” (63). Past black presidential candidates may be seen as having unrealistic expectations and were rarely taken seriously, especially the women. But the contributors demonstrate that there was significance in their insignificance. A point that is neatly threaded through the collection concerns the fact that these candidates may not have succeeded in breaking the systemic mould themselves but the pressure of their dissenting opinions created fissures and cracks which thereby opened up the political debate.

This book will no doubt become an essential resource for scholars and students researching African American culture. Obama's victory became an example of successful political organization and his persona an embodiment of the American Dream as popularly represented as having the power to overcome the most trenchant divisions. His campaign promised to transform the nation, including a potential change in the meaning of race itself. It will be the task of future editions of this volume to assess whether or not this proved to be the case.