The Trouble with Unity

In the September 2011 issue of Perspectives on Politics, Jeff Spinner-Halev of UNC-Chapel Hill reviews The Trouble with Unity along with Juliet Hooker's Race and the Politics of Solidarity. Professor Spinner-Halev offers a challenging, generally upbeat take on the book: "The idea of applying political theory to movement politics is certainly unusual, but Beltrán deftly weaves together empirical observation with normative insight in ways that allow us to see the dangers and promises of identity-based political movements." 

And then, in the February 2012 issue of Political Theory, Lawrie Balfour of UVA writes a beautiful and carefully wrought review essay about TTWU and Elizabeth Anderson's The Imperative of Integration. Some of Professor Balfour's more generous assertions regarding the book: "[A] dazzling reading of Latino politics.… One of the signal achievements of The Trouble with Unity is its capacity to vivify the political value and limitations of theoretical canons, old and new. If Beltran's argument stimulates conversation across disciplinary boundaries and takes democratic theory to places where it has not typically wanted to go, she also offers a forceful reminder of why political theorists return to hallowed texts. The Trouble with Unity puts political theorists on notice."