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Barack Obama

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President Obama wipes the sweat from his forehead at a press conference.

We Now Know the Full Extent of Obama’s Disastrous Apathy Toward the Climate Crisis

Obama’s official oral history contains new evidence of his indifference and foot-dragging on the most important issue of our time.
by Nathan J. Robinson via Current Affairs on June 5, 2023
Picture of Barack Obama and W.E.B Du Bois.

A Prophet and a President

Why black biography matters.
by David Levering Lewis via The American Scholar on October 21, 2021
President Obama in the Oval Office.

Pictures at a Restoration

On Pete Souza’s Obama.
by Blair McClendon via n+1 on August 10, 2021
A collage with photos of Barack Obama.

The Limits of Barack Obama’s Idealism

“A Promised Land” tells of a country that needed a savior.
by Thomas Meaney via The New Republic on February 15, 2021

The Obamanauts

What is the defining achievement of Barack Obama?
by Corey Robin via Dissent on October 7, 2019
Photo over Obama's shoulder facing Larry Summers and Timothy Geitner on the other side of a conference table.

Obama's Original Sin

A new insider account reveals how the Obama administration’s botched bailout deal reinforced neoliberal Clintonism.
by Eric Rauchway via Boston Review on April 23, 2019

Between Obama and Coates

Because both thinkers neglect political economy, they end up promoting a politics that is responsible for the nation's growing inequality.
by Touré F. Reed via Catalyst on March 12, 2018

Race to the Bottom

How the post-racial revolution became a whitewash.
by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw via The Baffler on June 1, 2017

The Wrong Side of 'the Right Side of History'

President Obama espouses a facile faith in history bending toward perfection and morality-against evidence and reason.
by David A. Graham via The Atlantic on December 21, 2015
World Trade Center towers burning on 9/11.

The Righteous Community: Legacies of the War on Terror

A new book traces how "the wet dream of an ageing militarist has become a fundamental force driving American foreign policy."
by Jackson Lears via London Review of Books on July 24, 2025
President George W. Bush delivering the first State of the Union speech after the 9/11 attacks.

The Legacy of the ‘Axis of Evil’

One speech permanently influenced American diplomacy—and not for the better.
by Kourosh Ziabari via The American Conservative on December 20, 2024

The Sentimentalizing of Federalist Ten

Ideas about history still prevailing in the liberal resistance to Trump keep pushing us backward.
by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on December 10, 2024
A drawing of two people speaking with a third person's head listening between them.

Diverging Majority

Demography has not managed to be destiny in the past half-century—but predictions of a millenarian shift have not lost their appeal.
by Rick Perlstein, Geraldo Cadava via The Baffler on September 3, 2024
Collage of popular culture references from 2008 onward.

That Feeling You Recognize? Obamacore.

The 2008 election sparked an outburst of brightness and positivity across pop culture. Now hindsight — and cringe — is setting in.
by Nate Jones via Vulture on August 20, 2024
Kamala Harris

The Cultural History Behind Trump's Attack on Kamala Harris's Race

What the scholarship on biraciality tells us about politics now.
by Rafael Walker via The Chronicle of Higher Education on August 8, 2024
The White House surrounded by outlines of Iran, Russia, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, China, Syria, and Afghanistan.

How Four U.S. Presidents Unleashed Economic Warfare Across the Globe

U.S. sanctions have surged over the last two decades and are now in effect on almost one-third of all nations. But are they doing more harm than we realize?
by Jeff Stein, Federica Cocco via Washington Post on July 25, 2024
Illustration of gay bar patrons and a park ranger at Stonewall National Monument.

What Is Stonewall in 2024?

A touristy dive bar, an unfinished liberation movement, and now a visitor center for the National Park Service.
by Brock Colyar via Curbed on June 20, 2024
Richard Slotkin.

“A Theory of America”: Mythmaking with Richard Slotkin

"I was always working on a theory of America."
by Kathleen Belew, Richard S. Slotkin via Public Books on April 19, 2024
Spielberg and Henry Thomas in a scene on the set of E.T.

The Auteur of Fatherhood: How Steven Spielberg Recast American Masculinity

Steven Spielberg’s early films conjure all of his moviemaking magic to repair a world of lost dads.
by Phillip Maciak via The Yale Review on March 4, 2024
Illustration of Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu.

How Joe Biden Became America's Top Israel Hawk

The president once said “Israel could get into a fistfight with this country and we’d still defend” it. That is now clearer than ever.
by Noah Lanard via Mother Jones on December 22, 2023
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