A More Perfect Union: Advancing New American Rights or simply A More Perfect Union is the third book written by United States Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. in collaboration with Frank E.Watkins. Watkins is a political theorist, activist and was the press secretary to Jackson at the time. It was released in hardcover format on October 15, 2001 and in paperback format on April 25, 2008. The material for the book came from 1997 trips by Jackson to American Civil War battlefields. Although Watkins is credited, the biographical content of the book is written as a first person narrative as if written solely by Jackson.
The National Park Service has twenty-eight national Civil War historic sites. Jackson and White visited approximately twenty battlefields in August 1997, December 1997 and the spring of 1998. Jackson's wife, Sandi Jackson, participated in the third trip. The trips heightened a belief of Jackson's that race as it relates to African Americans has been the focal point of social and political existence in American history. Since Jackson is not the first to present such a realization, he presents a North-South schism lens through which to view the congressional politics of race.
The book contains about 75 pages of biographical/autobiographical content which provide context for the subsequent political analysis. Critical reviews do not analyze the biographical content. Instead, the reviews focus on the political analysis of race, economic issues, geographical divide, and states' rights as well as the constitutional amendments proposed in this book.
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