Political History

The 2008 presidential election unleashed a potent new force in American politics. It is the Millennial Generation: Americans born since 1982, now age 26 and under. Politicians and pundits alike were surprised by the waves of young volunteers who manned the campaign front lines, phone banking, blogging, canvassing door-to-door, and organizing large groups of peers to do the same. Politics was suddenly cool, pushing Time to jump ahead of longtime favorite Cosmo as the most popular magazine on college campuses. Youth turnout in the primaries jumped

Tuesday, as Barack Obama became the first African-American President, the shadows of great Americans stood watch among the millions who gathered on the National Mall.

Lincoln, who delivered black Americans from slavery, was evident as President Obama rested his hand on the same Bible that the 16th President used to take the oath of office in 1861.

It takes time to assess a presidency.

Harry S Truman left office reviled, only to enjoy huge popularity after colorful biographies were published, decades later.

Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace, but enjoyed partial success burnishing his credentials as a foreign policy sage.

Bill Clinton left office after surviving impeachment, but has earned high marks for his charity work since then, despite some bumps in the 2008 campaign.

This article is forthcoming in Studies in American Political Development, April 2009

Samuel P. Huntington, one of the most creative social scientists of our time, died this Christmas Eve. In 1950, when Huntington began his long tenure at Harvard's government department, there was a great deal of optimism about our capacity to solve social problems. After all, the Second World War seemed to demonstrate that a little elbow grease and Yankee know-how was enough to fix the world. Many very smart people--we'd later call them "the best and the brightest"--believed the impoverished states just then emerging from

Over the past eight years, many have suggested that President George W. Bush’s arrogance lies at the root of his failed policies. His resolve that we simply “stay the course,” without adjustment or alteration -- as Iraq descended into a brutal civil war -- being the most noteworthy example. Ironically, I wonder whether that same unrelenting confidence -- stripped of the stubbornness -- is exactly what is required to keep America from economic collapse.

Schwartz Fellow

Steven Teles is Associate Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. He has been a professor or visiting researcher at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, University of Maryland, Brandeis University, the University of London, Holy Cross and Hamilton Colleges. He is the author, most recently, of The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle for Control of the… more

Al Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman Zawahiri, made a lame attempt to invalidate the idea that Barack Obama's victory is a symbol of American racial progress. It's not a surprise really. The United States' enemies long have used racial inequality as the stick with which to beat us. And unfortunately, it's a stick that we've handed them over and over again. Domestic discrimination has been at odds with our national mission of democratizing the world. But Zawahiri's message suggests the ascendance of a black… more

With all the talk of a new "Great Depression," Herbert Hoover has enjoyed an ignominious revival. On the day when Lehman Brothers winked out of existence and the simmering financial crisis boiled over, John McCain infamously pronounced that the "fundamentals of the economy are strong," a phrase that uncomfortably echoed Hoover's 1929 pronouncement that "the fundamental business of the country...is on a sound and prosperous basis."

Hoover's inaction in the face of the mounting crisis has made him an enduring symbol of economic mismanagement, but as bad he… more

Alex Castellanos, Ron Christie and Reihan Salam offered their thoughts about whether the Republican Party's core principles remain intact, whether Reaganism applies to the 21st century, and who the front-runners might be for the GOP's 2012 presidential nomination. Reihan Salam: The composition of the electorate right now is so different in the United States than it was in any of those periods, including 1992, that it's very hard for me to see a very good analogue. We're also living… more