Jonathan Rieder, a professor of sociology at Barnard College, Columbia
University, is the author of The Word of the Lord is Upon Me: The Righteous Performance of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Harvard University
Press, 2008). He is currently working on a book on the transformation of rhythm and blues into soul music. The editor of The Fractious Nation: Unity and Division in the Contemporary United States, he is the author of Canarsie: The Jews and Italians of Brooklyn against Liberalism. A former contributing editor at The New Republic, from 1995 to 2001 he was founding co-editor of CommonQuest: The Magazine of Black-Jewish Relations.