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David Dinkins And New York City, 1989-1993: Political Coalition Building And Governance At The Dawn Of The Age Of Identity Politics, James J. Barney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Charting the rise and fall of New York City’s first African American mayor, David Dinkins, this study provides insight into the complexities of governing and coalition-building in New York City during the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s. The rise of both identity and conservative politics shaped New York City during Dinkins’s 1989–1993 administration. Dinkins skillfully built a diverse and multiracial political coalition that first unseated three-term mayor Ed Koch in a Democratic primary and then beat Rudy Giuliani in the general election of 1989, only to see the coalition disintegrate in the following years. Dinkins’s rise and fall …