The Presidency and the Politics of Racial Inequality: Nation-Keeping from 1831 to 1965 (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780231107228)

Focusing on the most explosive and enduring of equality movements--the struggle for social and economic parity by African Americans--Riley argues that the president's unwritten mandate as the designated protector of domestic social order is to suppress or moderate major social change. Only in extreme circumstances have presidents become advocates of serious reform.