Party Presidential Candidates Research Articles

Igbophobia and the Quest for National Cohesion in Nigeria: The 2023 General Elections in Perspective

The much anticipated 2023 general elections had come and gone but its effects toward nation building and national cohesion is sacrosanct. The emergence of the formal Governor of Anambra state, Peter Obi as the labour party presidential candidate, his popularity and acceptance among the youth in the country (Obedient movement) re-awakened an Igbophobic sentiment and hatred against Igbo people by the other ethnic groups. There were phobic comments that Igbos are trying to take over Nigeria and divide the country in order to create Biafra. The study examined Igbophobic sentiment during the 2023 general elections and its implications on the national cohesion. The data for the study were derived from the secondary source, while descriptive method of data analysis was used to analysed the data generated. The was study anchored on the Realist Group Conflict Theory (RGCT) which states that competition between groups for finite resources, power and fair of domination leads to inter group stereotype, antagonism and conflict. Findings reveal that, the fear of Igbo domination created the stereotype and Igbophobic attitudes among other ethnic groups. The study therefore recommends among other things; the rotation of the seat of presidency among the six geopolitical zones as this will give sense of belonging to other minority ethnic groups.

Native Fascism: Evansville’s 1948 Wallace Riot

ABSTRACT: In April 1948, Progressive Party presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace arrived in Indiana to much controversy. The conservative state did not welcome Wallace, and veterans’ organizations actively organized to disrupt his speaking engagements. On April 6, at the Progressive Party’s Evansville campaign event, a mob attacked Wallace supporters, causing injuries and pushing the isolated town into the national spotlight. In the wake of the riot, a local professor was fired for his involvement in the Wallace campaign, and the radical CIO Local 813 became the subject of U. S. House committee hearings. Anticommunist hysteria gripped the Evansville community. What happened in Evansville on April 6 was part of a populist fascism in the United States propelled by anti-communism and enacted by veterans’ organizations. While national politicians dominate histories of anti-communism, some of the greatest damage done during the 1940s and 1950s occurred when other Americans, specifically veterans’ groups, violated the constitutional rights of their fellow citizens.

Native Fascism: Evansville’s 1948 Wallace Riot

ABSTRACT: In April 1948, Progressive Party presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace arrived in Indiana to much controversy. The conservative state did not welcome Wallace, and veterans’ organizations actively organized to disrupt his speaking engagements. On April 6, at the Progressive Party’s Evansville campaign event, a mob attacked Wallace supporters, causing injuries and pushing the isolated town into the national spotlight. In the wake of the riot, a local professor was fired for his involvement in the Wallace campaign, and the radical CIO Local 813 became the subject of U. S. House committee hearings. Anticommunist hysteria gripped the Evansville community. What happened in Evansville on April 6 was part of a populist fascism in the United States propelled by anti-communism and enacted by veterans’ organizations. While national politicians dominate histories of anti-communism, some of the greatest damage done during the 1940s and 1950s occurred when other Americans, specifically veterans’ groups, violated the constitutional rights of their fellow citizens.

Comrade Wives Behind the Scenes: Kate Metzel Debs and the American Socialist Party Women of Girard, Kansas

Katherine Metzel Debs, wife of five-time Socialist Party presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs, developed a close relationship with the Socialist women in Girard, Kansas, between the years 1907 to 1912. During this period, while maintaining her traditional role as wife and partner in their home in Terre Haute, Indiana, she supported her husband even while he was based in Girard. Although separated by miles, Kate found comrades who shared situations similar to her own and who also worked to further the Socialist cause. This article presents a different view of her attitude towards Gene's work and her role in his success than has been put forth in biographies of her more famous husband.

“Enthusiasm” toward the other side matters: Emotion and willingness to express disagreement in social media political conversation

ABSTRACT To reveal a complete picture of people’s disagreement-related experiences, we explored the relationship between encountering and expressing disagreement in the context of social media settings. We also shed light on the role of three types of emotions – anxiety, enthusiasm, and anger – in determining people’s willingness to express disagreement. Our findings show that frequently encountering disagreement is a positive predictor of expressing disagreement. Those who felt enthusiasm toward the out-party candidate expressed greater disagreement, but the extent of their expressed disagreement declined with exposure to too much disagreement. Our study shows that patterns differed greatly depending on party affiliation. We only observed the positive role of encountering disagreement and enthusiasm in facilitating disagreement expression among Democratic Party presidential candidate supporters. The study employed original two-wave national survey data collected during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Feminist and Anti-Feminist Identification in the 21st Century United States

ABSTRACT Feminism and anti-feminism featured prominently in the 2016 presidential election. Hillary Clinton was the first female major party presidential candidate and self-identified as a feminist speaking openly about the challenges facing women. Clinton faced off against Donald Trump, who was on record making sexist statements and arguing that Clinton’s success was from playing the “woman card”. We ask several questions: who identifies as a feminist today and how is this different from who identified as a feminist in the previous generation? Who identifies as “anti-feminist”? Are anti-feminists simply a mirror reflection of feminists or is it a distinctive social identity? Finally, the study explores the meaning of these labels by looking at what feminists and anti-feminists believe in terms of public policy and attitudes about gender equality. Thus, this study provides insights into the state of modern feminism and antifeminism in contemporary American politics.

The Cultural Politics of Dan Quayle and Mike Pence

This essay was part of an Indiana Law Review symposium on the five U.S. vice presidents who have hailed from Indiana. The Gallup polling organization classifies Indiana as a “pink” state, rather than a “red” state, meaning it leans Republican but is not solidly in the GOP column. Yet, if an image of Indiana persists in many people’s minds as a bastion of social conservatism and tradition, that image likely has been shaped in part by the two most recent vice presidents the Hoosier state has sent to Washington: Dan Quayle and Mike Pence. In selecting their running mates, major party presidential candidates typically look for someone with strengths or experience that the person at the top of the ticket lacks. Both Quayle and Pence were chosen, to a large degree, because they were seen as effective and important ambassadors to social and religious conservatives — a group that was not the natural constituency of their senior running mates, George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump, respectively. Barring some event that elevates Pence to the presidency, this is how both Quayle and Pence are likely to be remembered by history: As great favorites, even paragons, of the religious right, and as loyal political subalterns whose job was to carry the torch for “family values,” opposition to abortion and LGBT rights, and a greater role for religion in American public life.

Too responsible to run for president: Frank Church and the 1976 presidential nomination

ABSTRACT In 1975, Senator Frank Church led the first US Senate review of the conduct of the United States intelligence community, popularly known as the Church Committee. The committee identified a plethora of constitutional abuses by the intelligence community in the early Cold War that shocked the nation, and initiated wholesale reform of congressional intelligence oversight. Conservative critics used Church’s subsequent campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1976 as evidence of his use of the investigation to further his presidential aspirations. Using newly-discovered archival evidence and oral history interviews, this article establishes that such conclusions are erroneous, and that Church knowingly sacrificed his ambitions to maintain the committee’s public standing. Furthermore, it argues that contemporary and later criticism of Church’s conduct was aimed at negating the impact of the Church Committee’s report and protecting the intelligence community from unwanted reform.

United States Democratic Party and the 2020 Presidential Election: The Main Candidates, Topics and Features of the Election Rhetoric

Introduction. The article is of relevance due to the beginning of the active phase of the race for the right to become the Democratic Party’s nominee for the 2020 United States presidential election. The range of issues, topics and features of the election rhetoric of the Democrats will largely determine the outcome of the 2020 election and therefore will influence the subsequent development of the United States. The objective of the study is to analyze the political rhetoric of the major Democratic Party presidential candidates and the political trends among the ranks of the Democrats, taking place against the backdrop of the election campaign. Materials and Methods. The study was based on the methods of empirical analysis, such as description, synthesis, analogy, classification, and comparison, which made it possible to consider the main characteristics and topics of the political rhetoric of members of the United States Democratic Party. Publications in the media, recordings of public speeches of the Democratic Party members, statistics, sociological polls, and research by Russian and foreign scientists were used as the materials for the study. Results. The author has identified the main topics and features of the election rhetoric of the Democratic Party presidential candidates. Issues of public health, education, and ecology have become central topics for the potential Democratic presidential candidates, which is largely due to a significant shift to the left and the role of the left-wing Democrats in the electoral process. The study has revealed a significant degree of political disintegration in the Democratic Party. The major challenge the Democrats are faced with today is to nominate a candidate who will be able to fight back the energetic rhetoric of Donald Trump, retain the traditional electorate of the Democratic Party, and attract new supporters. Discussion and Conclusion. The research results provide an insight into the processes taking place in the Democratic Party at the stage of nominating the Democratic presidential candidate. The data presented in the article will be useful to researchers interested in the history and politics of the United States. The study conducted makes it possible to better understand the current trends in American domestic policies, which largely determine the state of affairs in international relations.

Why Insurgent Campaigns Rarely Win the Democratic Presidential Primary in the United States

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines insurgent as “one who acts contrary to the policies and decisions of one’s own political party.” In this paper, an “insurgent presidential campaign” is defined as the campaign of a candidate who did not have the support of the United States of America’s (U.S.) Democratic Party establishment. A “populist campaign” is a subset of an insurgent campaign, because although all populist campaigns are insurgent campaigns, not all insurgent campaigns are populist campaigns. This paper defines a “populist campaign” as one that seeks to mobilize an unrepresented segment of the population against an institution or government, usually in defense of the unrepresented. Whether left-wing or right-wing, populist candidates seek to unite the supposedly uncorrupt and unsophisticated unrepresented against supposedly corrupt dominant elites. Insurgent campaigns have rarely been successful in capturing the Democratic Party presidential nomination in the United States. Only three insurgent campaigns have been successful over the past 50 years: the campaigns of George McGovern in 1972, Jimmy Carter in 1976, and Barack Obama in 2008, all of which were populist campaigns. The paper analyzes U.S. presidential campaigns for the period 1968-2016; reviews books and academic literature; and makes conclusions concerning the success and failure of insurgent campaigns. Finally, the paper recommends ways in which future insurgent campaigns could be more successful.

City of Islands: Caribbean Intellectuals in New York by Tammy L. Brown

Reviewed by: City of Islands: Caribbean Intellectuals in New York by Tammy L. Brown Cécile Accilien CITY OF ISLANDS: Caribbean Intellectuals in New York. By Tammy L. Brown. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 2015. In New York City, a literal city of islands, people from the Caribbean islands comprise over one third of its foreign-born population. Historian Tammy L. Brown traces the impact of English-speaking Caribbean-born immigrants from Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica in the early twentieth century while exposing the tensions between non-US blacks and African Americans. She meticulously documents their civic and social engagement in the city and their ability to fight against racism and sexism. Each of the seven chapters each highlight a specific intellectual and show the primary influence of their family life and Caribbean culture. Chapter 1 "Caribbean New York", focuses on Trinidadian born Jazz-pianist Hazel Scott to analyze the life of Caribbean immigrants to New York. By describing her marriage to Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Brown argues that the social and political encounters between Caribbean immigrants and American-born blacks were complex and filled with animosity. Chapter 2 "Ethelred Brown and the Character of New Negro Leadership" analyzes the life of the Jamaican born preacher Egbert Ethelred Brown through his upbringing and conversion from the Methodist church to the Unitarian church in Jamaica. Brown argues that he uses pan-Caribbean solidarity in his sermons and speeches as a strategy to advance his own political agenda. Chapter 3 "Richard B. Moore and Pan-Caribbean Consciousness" relates the life of the Barbadian communist, socialist and anti-colonial leader Richard B. Moore. He moved to New York at an early age and was influenced and shaped by both Caribbean and African-American intellectuals such as Ethelred Brown, Chandler Owen, Arturo Schomburg, Cyril Briggs to name but a few. He was also greatly influenced by Frederick Douglass and considered education as the path to freedom. Through his poetry, speeches and articles Moore prescribes equal rights for justice, social and economic betterment of all people of African descent. In chapter 4 "Pearl Primus and the Performance of African Diasporic Identities," Brown depicts the life and 50-year career of choreographer and dancer Pearl Primus as a model of Caribbean women artist-activists who fought for social and racial justice through their art, notably [End Page 81] poetry, choreography, interviews and other writings. Brown notes that Primus is part of the lineage of women who use their work and their fame to be "warriors for social justice" (97) and that she "use[s] dance as a mode of political protest in Jim Crow America. . .at a time when black bodies were criminalized, demonized, mocked and physically attacked" (99). In Brown's view, through her work she forged "a theoretical bridge between two of the most significant movements in the history of modern American art: the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts movement" (103). Through her multiculturalism and African-centered consciousness in her art and her personal life Primus marked the stage for generations of Caribbean and American-born women and men. When Shirley Chisholm ran for president in 1972 she was the first black candidate for a major party's presidential nomination. Prior to that in 1968 she became the first black woman in Congress. Chapter 5 "Shirley Chisholm and the Style of Multicultural Democracy" analyzes the political career of one of the most influential black woman leaders of that era. The child of Bajan immigrants, Chisholm used her political might to fight for civil rights and women's rights, which are intrinsically connected. She notes, "It is true that women are second-class citizens, just as black people are. . .I want the time to come when we can be as blind to sex as we are to color" (147). As a black immigrant woman, she could relate to various constituencies 1960 and 70s New York. Brown asserts that Chisholm's "transcultural status" made her appealing. Being a part of American and Bajan culture Chisholm was very conscious of the complexity of her dual identity and the tensions between Caribbean and Black Americans. She reflects: "It is wrong, because the accident that my ancestors were...

Why Insurgent Campaigns Rarely Win the Democratic Presidential Primary in the United States

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines insurgent as “one who acts contrary to the policies and decisions of one’s own political party.” In this paper, an “insurgent presidential campaign” is defined as the campaign of a candidate who did not have the support of the United States of America’s (U.S.) Democratic Party establishment. A “populist campaign” is a subset of an insurgent campaign, because although all populist campaigns are insurgent campaigns, not all insurgent campaigns are populist campaigns. This paper defines a “populist campaign” as one that seeks to mobilize an unrepresented segment of the population against an institution or government, usually in defense of the unrepresented. Whether left-wing or right-wing, populist candidates seek to unite the supposedly uncorrupt and unsophisticated unrepresented against supposedly corrupt dominant elites. Insurgent campaigns have rarely been successful in capturing the Democratic Party presidential nomination in the United States. Only three insurgent campaigns have been successful over the past 50 years: the campaigns of George McGovern in 1972, Jimmy Carter in 1976, and Barack Obama in 2008, all of which were populist campaigns. The paper analyzes U.S. presidential campaigns for the period 1968-2016; reviews books and academic literature; and makes conclusions concerning the success and failure of insurgent campaigns. Finally, the paper recommends ways in which future insurgent campaigns could be more successful.

Obesity Prevalence and Voting Behaviors in the 2016 US Presidential Election.

Objective We assessed the relationship between county-level prevalence of adult obesity and voting behaviors in the 2016 US presidential election. Methods Spatial autoregressive regression was performed to examine county-level obesity rate in relation to the vote margin for the Republican Party presidential candidate, defined as the percentage difference in votes received by the Republican presidential candidate and those received by the Democratic presidential candidate, adjusting for county sociodemographics and state fixed effects. Results A quadratic association was found between county-level obesity rate and the vote margin for the Republican Party presidential candidate-the margin increased when obesity rate increased from 11.8% to 34.1%, but after reaching its peak of 36.1%, it started to decrease when obesity rate further increased to 47.9%. Conclusion Typically, health disparity has been considered as a political outcome, whereas its impact on political behavior is rarely examined. Our findings indicate obesity disparities may not only be influenced by political decisions but also affect political behavior. Future studies should elucidate the pathway linking obesity to voting behavior and track the long-term trend of this relationship.

The Increasing Racialization of American Electoral Politics, 1988-2016

In this article, we examine the relationship between racial resentment and a host of political attitudes, predispositions, and behaviors across 28 years and 7 presidential elections. We find, contrary to the suggestions of recent work of the role of race in the Obama era, that the racialization of seemingly nonracial political issues began many years before the debut of Barack Obama and extends beyond his presidency. More specifically, we find, controlling for other factors, that the relationships between racial resentment and partisan and ideological self-identifications, evaluations of the major party presidential candidates, and attitudes about health insurance and governmental services have strengthened each subsequent year beginning in 1988 through 2016. This trend reflects the growing extent to which racial considerations are brought to bear on individual evaluations of and orientations toward the political world.

Suicide Rates in U.S. Presidential Election Years: 2008, 2012 and 2016

The author examines age-group specific suicide rates by state in the United States presidential election years of 2008, 2012 and 2016. For each election year, the states are divided into blue states (whose voters chose the Democratic Party presidential candidate) and red states (whose voters chose the Republican Party presidential candidate). While suicide rates have trended higher in all states, the differences in mean suicide rates in 2012 (when Democrat Barack Obama was re-elected) were significantly higher in red states than they were in blue states for every age group but adults 55 to 64 years of age. In 2016, when the Republican Party re-captured the White House late in the year, mean differences were notably higher in red states than in blue states among adults between 25 and 54 years of age.

Swing voting in the 2016 presidential election in counties where midlife mortality has been rising in white non-Hispanic Americans

Understanding the effects of widespread disruption of the social fabric on public health outcomes can provide insight into the forces that drive major political realignment. Our objective was to estimate the association between increases in mortality in middle-aged non-Hispanic white adults from 1999 to 2005 to 2009–2015, health inequalities in life expectancy by income, and the surge in support for the Republican Party in pivotal US counties in the 2016 presidential election. We conducted a longitudinal ecological study in 2764 US counties from 1999 to 2016. Increases in mortality were measured using age-specific (45–54 years of age) all-cause mortality from 1999 to 2005 to 2009–2015 at the county level. Support for the Republican Party was measured as the party's vote share in the presidential election in 2016 adjusted for results in 2008 and 2012. We found a significant up-turn in mortality from 1999 to 2005 to 2009–2015 in counties where the Democratic Party won twice (2008 and 2012) but where the Republican Party won in 2016 (+10.7/100,000), as compared to those in which the Democratic Party won in 2016 (−15.7/100,000). An increase in mortality of 15.2/100,000 was associated with a significant (p < 0.001) 1% vote swing from the 2008–2012 average to 2016. We also found that counties with wider health inequalities in life expectancy were more likely to vote Republican in 2016, regardless of the previous voting patterns. Counties with worsening premature mortality in the last 15 years and wider health inequalities shifted votes toward the Republican Party presidential candidate. Further understanding of causes of unanticipated deterioration in health in the general population can inform social policy.

TENOR CONFIGURATIONS IN CAMPAIGN SPEECHES OF TWO DEMOCRATIC PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES 2016

This study aims at finding out the tenor configurations that exist in the campaign speeches of two Democratic Party presidential candidates 2016 by using four aspects of tenor and it is to find out how the way the social relationship is played by addressee and addresser in political arena. Tenor configurations in campaign speeches of two Democratic Party presidential candidates is done by theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics. The use of tenor is purposed to make readers understand the speech easily and persuade the readers to do something as the speech means. This research used descriptive quantitative method. The data of this study were taken from some sources in the internet. The data were the transcripts of four campaign speeches by two Democratic presidential candidates that were delivered in different places. The writer focused on the analysis of aspects of tenor in campaign speeches by two Democratic Party presidential candidates; Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, and finally found the most dominant configuration that appears in the campaign speeches. The writer found that from the four aspects of tenor the campaign speeches mostly used configuration [Formal/Equal/Positive/Infrequent].

Woodrow Wilson's House: The Hidden Hand of Wilsonian Progressivism

Woodrow Wilson's House:The Hidden Hand of Wilsonian Progressivism Scot D. Bruce (bio) Charles E. Neu. Colonel House: A Biography of Woodrow Wilson's Silent Partner. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. xiv + 699 pp. Illustrations, notes, sources, and index. $34.95. Few one-volume biographies are as comprehensive as this splendid offering from Charles E. Neu, now serving as Professor Emeritus of History at Brown University. One of the most respected historians of the past fifty years, Neu displays proficiency throughout as he deftly examines America's political landscape from the Gilded Age through the Progressive Era, using the life and career of Colonel Edward M. House as his primary focus. It was once said that House could appear to be "an intimate man, even when he was cutting your throat," which in the political realm, then and now, seems high praise indeed. Woodrow Wilson's closest friend for nearly eight years, Colonel House served as the president's chief political strategist and confidante, even representing Wilson overseas as his trusted envoy on several occasions during and after World War I. Their political collaboration became the stuff of legend; yet the frail, diminutive Texan never held an official post in Wilson's administration. Instead, House preferred to orchestrate from behind the scenes, ingratiating himself to the likes of Wilson, Edward Grey, and Georges Clemenceau, and then dispensing advice that affected millions over the course of the twentieth century. Professor Neu rightly characterizes House as not only a personal devotee of Wilson, but also a vital contributor to the Wilsonian brand of progressivism. In this vein, the life and times of Colonel House merit serious attention. His is a story worth telling, and Neu tells it thoroughly and well. Scholars of the Progressive Era, especially those familiar with both Wilson and House, will certainly recognize the biographical set pieces of House's youth, the antecedents that paved the way for his future as a "kingmaker" in southern politics and later as an international statesman. While there is nothing essentially new in these early chapters, Neu effectively sets the stage for his narrative. Born in Houston, Texas, on July 26, 1858, Edward Mandell House belonged to one of the most prominent families in the state. He came of age during the latter stages of Reconstruction, and over the course of two [End Page 621] decades evolved from young business mogul to veteran political advisor. Tracing House's formal education to 1879, during his brief time as a student at Cornell, Professor Neu aptly conveys the genesis of House's fascination with politics. In essence, a boyhood interest in political history developed into something more in 1876, while House was a student at the Hopkins School, a college preparatory academy in New Haven, Connecticut. Here he befriended the son of Oliver Perry Morton, the U.S. Senator from Indiana who, at the time, was challenging Rutherford B. Hayes for the Republican Party's presidential nomination. Morton eventually lost to Hayes, who went on to become President of the United States after one of the most contested elections in American history. However, as Neu suggests, House's ringside view of the famous election galvanized his fervent interest in politics moving forward. House tabled his political ambitions for years, instead finding time to marry and start a family, while concentrating on farming and ranching as well as land speculation, among other business ventures. Then, in 1885, the Houses relocated from Houston to Austin, ostensibly to seek stronger business connections, though improved access to the power base of Texas politics may have been an ulterior motive, as Neu rightly intimates. It was not long before House folded himself into a growing circle of elite acquaintances throughout the state. It was common for the Houses to either entertain guests at their palatial new home or hobnob elsewhere with business leaders and the political aristocracy. While Edward House's later service to President Wilson is paramount to this work, it was in the crucible of Texas politics that House refined his political acumen. In 1892, the incumbent Texas governor, James W. Hogg, faced a staunch challenge for the Democratic nomination from George Clark, a well-funded...

Positioning Carly Fiorina in 2016: The Citizen Leader

The material in this case can be used to determine brand positioning and brand essence statements in the context of presidential campaigns. The case presents the 2016 nominating process where 18 major contenders were vying to be the Republican Party's presidential candidate. The challenge is focused on Carly Fiorina who was largely unknown and faced obstacles that more familiar candidates did not. To make it to the finish line, she would need to find a way to break through the clutter and become known. But being known was only part of the challenge. The other challenge was figuring out how to position Fiorina such that she was meaningfully different from the other candidates and yet quite compelling and relevant for the target voters. To do this, her team would have to identify the best target (e.g., demographically and psychographically) and then determine the strategic brand positioning (i.e., brand essence statement). Excerpt UVA-M-0896 Nov. 6, 2015 Positioning Carley Fiorina in 2016: The Citizen Leader? The American people think we now have a professional political class of both parties that is more concerned with its protection of its power, privilege, and position than on solving problems. I agree with them, that's why I'm running. —Carly Fiorina If the framers of the Constitution of the United States wanted a political system populated by a robust selection of the people's choice, then the Republican Party's slate of candidates for the 2016 presidential election would have made them happy. The 2016 nominating process was shaking up to be one for the record books. Never before had there been 18 major contenders. In this crowded field, Carly Fiorina was the only female and one of the few candidates who had never held elected office. She was largely unknown and faced obstacles that more familiar candidates (e.g., Jeb Bush and Rand Paul) did not. . . .

Say We Are Nations: Documents of Politics and Protest in Indigenous America since 1887

For evidence of the persistent precariousness of tribal sovereignty within the recent United States political sphere one does not need to reach as far back as George W. Bush’s 2004 pratfall attempt at defining the term. As recently as September 2015, Republican Party presidential candidate Rand Paul suggested that Native Americans “don’t do very well because there’s been a lack of assimilation.” Such an appraisal remains frustrating and frightening, but not surprising. Federal Indian policies have long been cloaked in different shades of sheep’s wool, but their cumulative agenda, if not effect, has remained relatively consistent: cultural assimilation by way of either subtle or overt blows against tribal sovereignty. Meanwhile, if we turn this asymmetrical power relation on its head, and instead focus on tribal nations’ overarching and enduring policy initiative, it too has remained consistent: sovereignty and nationhood. Unlike their fellow treaty signatories, however, tribal nations never packaged their agenda in false advertising.Twentieth-century ethnohistory expert Daniel M. Cobb borrows a quote from the influential Dakota scholar Vine Deloria Jr. for the title of his excellent new edited document collection, Say We Are Nations. Focusing more on politics than policies, it demonstrates Native American intellectuals’ and activists’ long tradition of engaging the surrounding majority society and wider world on Indigenous terms, for Indigenous purposes, and not at the expense of Indigeneity. Across five chapters, Cobb has arranged a total of fifty-five primary sources—including speeches, interviews, letters, essays, congressional testimonies, student writings, and more—that encompass tribal nations from throughout North America (Alaska and Hawai‘i included), and range chronologically from the 1887 Dawes Act to our present “uncertain times” (204). Forming a picture of resolute exercises in sovereignty, self-determination, and nationhood, these documents “respond to the presumption of indigenous incorporation and disappearance with a collective ‘not so fast’” (250).Just browsing this volume’s table of contents during an initial thumbing-through reveals an impressive number of unfamiliar and unpublished sources. Consider for example a 1919 letter from “obedient” Standing Rock Sioux leaders to Indian Commissioner Cato Sells requesting a removal of restrictions against the traditional grass dance, before inviting him to their upcoming Fourth of July celebration; a Tlingit couple’s letter to the Alaskan territorial governor that advocated a double victory for Native people at home and abroad during World War II; or the provocative and revealing essays by students of Cherokee anthropologist Robert K. Thomas’s late-1950s/early-1960s summer American Indian Affairs workshops. Culled exclusively from archives, the material concerning debates on the Indian Reorganization Act is especially impressive in its expression of competing assessments.As with any document collection, some readers are bound to take issue with omissions or uneven coverage. Yet, Cobb confesses that these are not “the great documents in American politics and protest since 1887” (5). Exhaustive coverage was less his aim than was an arrangement of both competing and cooperating voices that form an “intricate fugue,” to borrow his musical term. He succeeded most admirably.Say We Are Nations is an outstanding classroom resource—one that should generate lively discussions among students both uninitiated and familiar with the topic. (Cobb road-tested this material in his own courses.) Moreover, it will be of great value for professional scholarship on Indian intellectual history, activism, sovereignty, self-determination, economic development, postcolonial resistance, and, of course, politics. Indeed, while this compendium forms a compelling survival story, the resonant voices within certainly would remind us that there is still much work to be done in hearing the complicated convictions of generations of Indigenous activists who have fought to gain a seat at the table. Say We Are Nations is a great place to begin.