Download or read book Barack Obama and the Politics of Redemption written by Stanley A. Renshon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-03-15 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every new president raises many questions in the public mind. Because Barack Obama was a relative newcomer to the national political scene, he raised more questions than most. Would he prove to be a pragmatic centrist or would his politics of hope ultimately flounder on the rocky shoals of America’s deep political divisions? What of his leadership style? How would the uncommonly calm character he demonstrated on the campaign trail shape Obama’s political style as commander-in-chief? Based on extensive biographical, psychological, and political research and analysis, noted political psychologist Stanley Renshon follows Obama’s presidency through the first two years. He digs into the question of who is the real Obama and assesses the advantages and limitations that he brings to the presidency. These questions cannot be answered without recourse to psychological analysis. And they cannot be answered without psychological knowledge of presidential leadership and the presidency itself. Renshon explains that Obama’s ambition has been fueled by a desire for redemption—his own, that of his parents, and ultimately for the country he now leads, which has enormous consequences for his choices as president of a politically divided America.
Download or read book Redemption Song written by Niall Stanage and published by Liberties Press. This book was released on 2014-06-27 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In little more than four years, Barack Obama rose from political obscurity to become the 44th president of the United States. His election win in November 2008 was a moment of enormous historical magnitude, greeted with an outpouring of emotion in the US and around the world. However, on taking office, Obama was faced with unparalleled challenges as the global economy plunged ever-deeper into crisis and the US struggled with the two wars in which it was enmeshed.In Redemption Song, Niall Stanage tells the extraordinary tale of Obama's journey from community organiser in Chicago to leader of the free world through exclusive interviews with some of the new president's oldest friends and closest advisors. He explores the then-senator's long and acrimonious tussle with Hillary Clinton, sheds new light on his battle with John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin, and hears from the members of the grassroots movement that carried Obama all the way to the Oval Office.He also provides an intimate account of the first phase of the Obama presidency, reporting from within the White House walls on the new Administration's first tests, triumphs and tribulations.
Download or read book The Black Presidency written by Michael Eric Dyson and published by Mariner Books. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative, lively deep-dive into the meaning of America's first black president and first black presidency, from "one of the most graceful and lucid intellectuals writing on race and politics today" (Vanity Fair)
Download or read book The Race Whisperer written by Melanye T. Price and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzes the manner in which Barack Obama uses race strategically to engage with and win the loyalty of potential supporters. Price uses examples from Obama's campaigns and presidency to demonstrate his ability to authentically tap into notions of blackness and whiteness to appeal to particular constituencies. By tailoring his unorthodox personal narrative to emphasize those parts of it that most resonate with a specific racial group, Obama targets his message effectively to that audience, shoring up electoral and governing support. The author also considers the impact of Obama's use of race on the ongoing quest for black political empowerment. Unfortunately, racial advocacy for African Americans has been made more difficult because of the intense scrutiny of Obama's relationship with the black community, Obama's unwillingness to be more publicly vocal in light of that scrutiny, and the black community's reluctance to use traditional protest and advocacy methods on a black president. --From publisher description.
Download or read book The Persistence of the Color Line written by Randall Kennedy and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-04-17 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “provocative and richly insightful new book” (The New York Times Book Review) that gives us a shrewd and penetrating analysis of the complex relationship between the first black president and his African-American constituency. Renowned for his insightful, common-sense critiques of racial politics, Randall Kennedy now tackles such hot-button issues as the nature of racial opposition to Obama; whether Obama has a singular responsibility to African Americans; the differences in Obama’s presentation of himself to blacks and to whites; the challenges posed by the dream of a post-racial society; the increasing irrelevance of a certain kind of racial politics and its consequences; the complex symbolism of Obama’s achievement and his own obfuscations and evasions regarding racial justice. Eschewing the critical excesses of both the left and the right, Kennedy offers an incisive view of Obama’s triumphs and travails, his strengths and weaknesses, as they pertain to the troubled history of race in America.
Download or read book Dramatic Catharsis written by Chris Marshall and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2008 election of Barack Obama as America's first African American president was popularly held to represent a fulfilment of Martin Luther King's Dream and led to speculation about the implications of an Obama victory for a post racial America. This thesis argues that race was a recurring theme of Obama's election campaign, and that his rhetoric referred frequently to America's history of racial inequality. It explores how Obama constructed a racial identity that connected him to the African American struggle for civil rights and which placed him within a national progress narrative, and it argues that an important feature of Obama's campaign was the articulation of a rhetoric of redemption.Academic debates focussing on Obama's racial identity and the extent to which he spoke about race have been supported either by textual analysis of his speeches or by applying a historical perspective to the campaign. This thesis incorporates both approaches as it combines discourse analysis of a reference corpus of 172 speeches with intertextual and extralinguistic analyses facilitated through contextual knowledge of African American history and culture. The methodology embraces Ruth Wodak's Discourse-Historical Approach, consideration of Obama's appropriation of the Exodus narrative, and the application of Kenneth Burke's dramatistic pentad to explore the construction and representation of racial identity in Obama's rhetoric.The approach identifies an analytic corpus of 41 speeches which focus on race. This is used to identify how Obama presented his personal history within the context of the civil rights struggle and how he positioned his campaign to neither confront nor accommodate white America about racism and inequality. The results reveal Obama's desire for a national catharsis in repudiation of America's history of racial injustice; a redemptive moment made possible through unity, atonement and the collective effort encapsulated in the campaign slogan, "yes, we can".
Download or read book Saving Obama written by John A. Maxwell and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A philosophical examination of the cultural and spiritual significance of Barack Obama's candidacy. Maxwell's book is a political tome that is practically devoid of conventional political opinion or fact. Rather, it is a series of ruminations on the more ethereal aspects of Obama, including his persona, biography and potential as a cultural touchstone. Organized in sections of essay and poetry based thematically around the seven deadly sins (the "Sins of Our Fathers" from the book's subtitle), the author suggests that Obama is a politician who serves as a unique symbol to help us understand the errors our forebears have made, as well as an opportunity for redemption. Maxwell looks at Obama from a variety of fresh perspectives, including his role as both a devoted parent and a son who was abandoned by his father. At some points it is difficult to discern concrete ideas in the midst of Maxwell's sometimes overly flowery prose- he seems to imagine Obama more as a symbol than an actual person, let alone a political figure. For instance, he calls Obama "our American prince" and says that he "representatively is any troubled youth." Considering Maxwell's penchant for highly emotional, impressionistic writing, poetry fits his temperament most effectively, and many of the poems feature strong imagery and a clearer distillation of what Maxwell is trying to convey than his essays do. The major fault of the poetry is that it can at times be overly sentimental, too, which diminishes its impact and does nothing to allay the general vagueness of this book. But overall, Maxwell offers a provocative view of the aspects of Obama that can't be covered in a white paper or a policy speech. An interesting, if murky, take on what Obama means from a symbolic, rather than political, standpoint.-Kirkus Discoveries
Download or read book Nation of Cowards written by David Ikard and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a speech from which Nation of Cowards derives its title, Attorney General Eric Holder argued forcefully that Americans today need to talk more—not less—about racism. This appeal for candid talk about race exposes the paradox of Barack Obama's historic rise to the US presidency and the ever-increasing social and economic instability of African American communities. David H. Ikard and Martell Lee Teasley maintain that such a conversation can take place only with passionate and organized pressure from black Americans, and that neither Obama nor any political figure is likely to be in the forefront of addressing issues of racial inequality and injustice. The authors caution blacks not to slip into an accommodating and self-defeating "post-racial" political posture, settling for the symbolic capital of a black president instead of demanding structural change. They urge the black community to challenge the social terms on which it copes with oppression, including acts of self-imposed victimization.
Download or read book The Obama Presidency and the Politics of Change written by Edward Ashbee and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-11-09 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume considers the extent to which the Obama presidency matched the promises of hope and change that were held out in the 2008 election. Contributors assess the character of “change” and, within this context, survey the extent to which there was enduring change within particular policy areas, both domestic and foreign. The authors combine empirical detail with more speculative assessment of the limits and possibilities of change amidst a very dense institutional landscape and in an era of intense political polarization. Some see significant changes, the full consequences of which may only be evident in later years. Other authors in the collection present a markedly different picture and suggest that processes of change were not only limited and partial but at times leading the US in directions far removed from the promises of 2008. The book will make an important contribution to the debates about the Obama legacy.
Download or read book The Price of the Ticket written by Fredrick Harris and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-02 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Price of the Ticket, Fred Harris contends that Obama's success has, in reality, exacted a negative price. His victory has not only utterly transformed the forms of black politics that emerged in the 1960s and which laid the foundation for his eventual ascendance, Harris claims-it has profoundly weakened them.
Download or read book Evaluating the Obama Presidency written by Meena Bose and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2024-07-22 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2007 and 2008, Barack Obama ran for president with a message of a shared purpose uniting all Americans, and was elected with expectations that he would usher in a new national culture under an approach grounded in public engagement that would transcend partisan divisions. But in an institutional system designed for incremental and contested policy-making governance, enacting these transformational ambitions proved to be far more difficult than anticipated. This innovative volume assesses the legacy of President Obama, with a conceptual focus on the challenge of meeting his goals with the realities of governing. A diverse group of political science, history, and communication studies experts systematically examines Obama’s performance, accomplishments, and shortcomings through the lens of the expectations gap – the tensions and obstacles of translating campaign promises into policies. The wide, representative set of case studies address campaigning and coalition building, party polarization, presidential communication, executive power, leadership and decision-making, and domestic and foreign policy. With original and deep analysis, these scholars make a unique, enduring contribution to understanding the Obama presidency, the office of the president, and indeed American politics. This insightful, accessible book will be of great interest to students and scholars of the presidency, political communication & rhetoric, and broadly across US government and democracy.
Download or read book President Barack Obama written by John K. Wilson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-11-11 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Barack Obama's "improbable quest" has become a fact of American life and a benchmark in American history. Striving now toward "a more perfect union," Obama and the nation confront obstacles unforeseen at the outset of the 2008 electoral campaign. John K. Wilson tracks the sweep of this progress from the beginning of Obama's political career through his move into the White House. With his critical journalistic eye and his sympathetic "native son" perspective, Wilson shows us a side of Obama we haven't seen as well as a view of the media we need to understand-even more now as the Obama administration begins to govern. The paperback edition of this popular book includes a new introduction, updates throughout, and two new chapters on the electoral victory and the transition from campaigning into governing. New photos and new insights include a focus on the continued importance of race in American politics.
Download or read book The Making of Barack Obama written by Matthew Abraham and published by Parlor Press LLC. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Making of Barack Obama: The Politics of Persuasion provides the first comprehensive treatment of why Obama’s rhetorical strategies were so effective during the 2008 presidential campaign, during the first four years of his presidency, and once again during the 2012 presidential campaign.
Download or read book Gangster Government written by David Freddoso and published by Regnery Publishing. This book was released on 2011-04-04 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A scathing attack on the Obama administration and the current government equates them to common criminals and tries to offer a better way.
Download or read book Obama s Challenge written by Robert Kuttner and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Invoking America's greatest leaders, Robert Kuttner explains how Obama must be a transformative president--or a failed one--a president who must succeed in fundamentally changing our economy, society, and democracy for the better.
Download or read book Barack Obama and the Myth of a Post Racial America written by Mark Ledwidge and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2008 presidential election was celebrated around the world as a seminal moment in U.S. political and racial history. White liberals and other progressives framed the election through the prism of change, while previously acknowledged demographic changes were hastily heralded as the dawn of a "post-racial" America. However, by 2011, much of the post-election idealism had dissipated in the wake of an on-going economic and financial crisis, escalating wars in Afghanistan and Libya, and the rise of the right-wing Tea Party movement. By placing Obama in the historical context of U.S. race relations, this volume interrogates the idealized and progressive view of American society advanced by much of the mainstream literature on Obama. Barack Obama and the Myth of a Post-Racial America takes a careful look at the historical, cultural and political dimensions of race in the United States, using an interdisciplinary analysis that incorporates approaches from history, political science, and sociology. Each chapter addresses controversial issues such as whether Obama can be considered an African-American president, whether his presidency actually delivered the kind of deep-rooted changes that were initially prophesised, and whether Obama has abandoned his core African-American constituency in favour of projecting a race-neutral approach designed to maintain centrist support. Through cutting edge, critically informed, and cross-disciplinary analyses, this collection directly addresses the dimensions of race in American society through the lens of Obama’s election and presidency.
Download or read book The Substance of Hope written by William Jelani Cobb and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-06-02 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For acclaimed historian William Jelani Cobb, the historic election of Barack Obama to the presidency is not the most remarkable development of the 2008 election; even more so is the fact that Obama won some 90 percent of the black vote in the primaries across America despite the fact that the established black leadership since the civil rights era-men like Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, Andrew Young, who paved the way for his candidacy-all openly supported Hillary Clinton. Clearly a sea change has occurred among black voters, ironically pushing the architects of the civil rights movement toward the periphery at the moment when their political dreams were most fully realized. How this has happened, and the powerful implications it holds for America's politics and social landscape, is the focus of The Substance of Hope, a deeply insightful, paradigm-shifting examination of a new generation of voters that has not been shaped by the raw memory of Jim Crow and has a different range of imperatives. Cobb sees Obama's ascendancy as "a reality that has been taking shape in tiny increments for the past four decades," and examines thorny issues such as the paradox and contradictions embodied in race and patriotism, identity and citizenship; how the civil rights leadership became a political machine; why the term "postracial" is as iniquitous as it is inaccurate; and whether our society has really changed with Obama's election. Elegantly written and powerfully argued, The Substance of Hope challenges conventional wisdom as it offers original insight into America's future.
