Thug Life on the Campaign Trail (click here)
November 27, 2007
Historians for Obama (click here)
Historians love Barack Obama. Some of them, anyway. Yesterday a group of 26 top-tier scholars in the field publicly endorsed the Illinois Democratic senator for president.
In a posting on the History News Network, the group, Historians for Obama, invoked Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy as examples of leaders who altered “the mood of the nation.” Mr. Obama, it continued, “has the potential to be that kind of president.”
The historians praised his “ambitious, yet sensible” platform and his “global citizen” background: “Not since John F. Kennedy has a Democrat candidate for president showed the same combination of charisma and thoughtfulness—or provided Americans with a symbolic opportunity to break with a tradition of bigotry older than the nation itself,” the group said in its statement.
Historians for Obama does not speak for the profession as a whole—the American Historical Association, for instance, has issued no endorsement, and none is expected. But the 26 scholars do include leading lights like Joyce Appleby, Michael Kazin, Ralph E. Luker, and James McPherson.
