Barack Obama and Twenty-First Century Politics by Horace Campbell

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LI25Ak01.html


Humanist manifesto



Presidential literature is an established genre in the United States, with reams of print devoted to the personal and political traits of each occupant of the White House. The bulk of such works tend to focus on the leader in high office, their nature, foes, allies and policies, not on them as symbols of broader trends sweeping American society.

There are few among the presidential authors interested in a "people's history". But senior peace activist and political scientist from Syracuse University, Horace Campbell, has succeeded in linking epic shifts in US society to the rise and tenure of President Barack Obama. Far from the run-of-the mill hagiographies and screeds, Campbell's new book uses the Obama phenomenon as a peg for a reflective exercise on the unjust past and hopeful future of the US.

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Campbell's radical tour de force is unique in combining sharp academic rigor with an agenda of healing the historic wounds that have grated American society. His book's uplifting and universally applicable message is to center politics on people and to realize that the power to change is within each of us.
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