This timely work studies how leaders compete to engage different human motivations, considering how presidents, presidential candidates, and other political leaders appeal to potential followers' needs for economic well-being, safety, self-esteem, and a sense of significance. In this context, Goethals explores the place of racial dynamics in American politics from President Lincoln to Donald Trump, integrating psychology and historical understandings of presidential leadership and politics, to explain the way the politics of racial justice and needs for positive social identity have led to different regions in the United States changing party affiliation.