"A critical and long overdue intervention in the study of contemporary American politics, Why Americans Don't Join the Party provides a thorough revision of theories of partisanship. Hajnal and Lee brilliantly explain how the many different groups comprising today's complicated racial and ethnic terrain form attachments, or not, to the major political parties, and the authors show how these attachments are shaped by the legacy of slavery, immigrant political incorporation, and racial identities and ideologies. This book will be required reading for all who are interested in the future of American politics."--Michael Dawson, University of Chicago

"This remarkable and engaging book is a thorough investigation of contemporary partisanship and makes a strong contribution to the field of American politics. No other book theorizes the mechanisms that drive party identification in black, Latino, and Asian American communities."--Janelle Wong, University of Southern California

"This book is unique, provocative, important, and exhaustively defended. Putting a fresh and powerful charge into the debate on partisan identification, it will be widely read and provoke debate and further research."--Paul Frymer, Princeton University