Barack Obama: American Historian

ISBN-13: 9781350032330 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 376 str.

Steven Sarson

Opis

Barack Obama's politics are deeply informed by his profound knowledge and understanding of his country's history. His articles, books, and speeches are replete with references to America's past and how that relates to the present he sees and the future he envisions. Exploring Obama's own words, Barack Obama: American Historian reconstructs his narrative and examines his interpretation of American history from colonial times to the present-a history of the struggles to fulfil the promises of the nation's founding documents. Steven Sarson shows how Obama sees history as beginning with the "common creed" of equality and liberty proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence and in the "more perfect union" created by the Constitution. After analysing Obama's colonies, revolution, and early nation, the book examines his interpretations of slavery and the civil war, segregation and civil rights, economy and society, and war and foreign policy. An Epilogue explores how Obama personifies the American dream through the stories of individuals, including his own. Barack Obama: American Historian combines Obama's vivid telling of the American past with a vivid tale of its own-about the making of Barack Obama as a person and as a President. A unique and fascinating take on the past and how we interpret it, it will appeal to all students and scholars of American history and historiography as well as anyone interested in Obama's presidency.

Recenzje

[A] worthy and original addition to the Obama literature. The Journal of American History

Spis treści

Introduction: The landscape of our collective dreamsPrologue: A More Perfect Union: Barack Obama's American History1 Our starting point as Americans: The American Colonies2 Our common creed: The Declaration of Independence & the American Revolution3 The foundation of our government: The Constitution & the New Nation4 A new birth of freedom: Slavery & the Civil War5 We Shall Overcome: Reconstruction, Jim Crow, & Civil Rights6 The chief business of the American people: Property & Liberty7 Beyond Our Borders: Native Americans & other Foreign AffairsEpilogue:.Out of Many, One: American History's Barack ObamaNotesIndex

O autorze

Steven Sarson is Professor of American Civilisation at Jean Moulin University, France. He is the author of The Tobacco-Plantation South and the Early American Atlantic World (2013); British America: Creating Colonies, Imagining an Empire (2015) and numerous articles, and is the co-editor of The American Colonies and the British Empire (2011).