Drawing on collaborative research from a distinguished team at Harvard and Manchester universities, The age of Obama asks how two very different societies are responding to the tide of diversity that is being felt around the rich world. Guardian journalist Tom Clark, Robert D. Putnam - best-selling author of Bowling alone - and Manchester's Edward Fieldhouse offer a wonderfully readable account. Like Bowling alone, The age of Obama mixes social scientific rigor with accessible charts and lively arguments. It will be enjoyed by politics, sociology and geography students, as well as by anyone else with an interest in ethnic relations.

Injustice, it turns out, still blight lives of many UK and US minorities - particularly African Americans. And there are signs the new diversity strains community life. Yet in both countries, public opinion is running irreversibly in favour of tolerance. That augurs well for the future - and suggests a British Obama cannot be ruled out.

Summary
1. Introduction: the diversity revolution
2. Two concepts in two countries: race and migration
3. Home truths: how minorities live
4. The rickety ladder of opportunity: minorities and work
5. Mosaic or cracked vase? Diversity and community life
6. Distorting mirrors: media framing and political debate
7. Tidal generation: politics and deeper currents of public opinion
8. Concluding thoughts: making a success of the revolution
Bibliography
Index

Authors

Tom Clark writes editorials for The Guardian. Robert D. Putnam is the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. He is also Visiting Professor and Director of the Manchester Graduate Summer Programme in Social Change, University of Manchester. Edward Fieldhouse is Professor of Social and Political Science and Director of the Institute for Social Change at the University of Manchester