"To Clarify Those Historical Causal Chains"

"Policies like these should be Obama’s true north, the point toward which he should try to move the nation in the next four years. There are swamps between here and there, among them the public’s conflicted and often virulent attitudes toward race. But great presidents find ways to navigate around the swamps."

Paul Glastris introduces The Washington Monthly's special issue on "Race, History, and Obama's Second Term."