Book excerpt: This dynamic and comprehensive text from two nationally renowned scholars continues to demonstrate the profound influence African Americans have had -- and continue to have -- on American politics. Through the use of two interrelated themes -- the idea of universal freedom and the concept of minority-majority coalitions -- the text demonstrates how the presence of Africans in the United States affected the founding of the Republic and its political institutions and processes. The authors show that through the quest for their own freedom in the United States, African Americans have universalized and expanded the freedoms of all Americans.