Timeline xi
1 Policy Revolution without a Political Transformation: The Presidency of Barack Obama 1
Julian E. Zelizer
2 Tea Partied: President Obama's Encounters with the Conservative-Industrial Complex 11
Julian E. Zelizer
3 Neither a Depression nor a New Deal: Bailout, Stimulus, and the Economy 30
Eric Rauchway
4 Achievement without Credit: The Obama Presidency and Inequality 45
Paul Starr
5 Obama's Fight against Global Warming 62
Meg Jacobs
6 Obama's Court? 78
Risa Goluboff and Richard Schragger
7 The Gay Rights President 95
Timothy Stewart-Winter
8 Education in the Age of Obama: The Paradox of Consensus 111
Jonathan Zimmerman
9 Barack Obama and the Movement for Black Lives: Race, Democracy, and Criminal Justice in the Age of Ferguson 127
Peniel E. Joseph
10 A Decent-Sized Foundation: Obama's Urban Policy 144
Thomas J. Sugrue
11 "Tough and Smart": The Resilience of the War on Drugs during the Obama Administration 162
Matthew D. Lassiter
12 A Promise Unfulfilled, an Imperfect Legacy: Obama and Immigration Policy 179
Sarah R. Coleman
13 Liberal Internationalism, Law, and the First African American President 195
Jeremi Suri
14 Terror Tuesdays: How Obama Refined Bush's Counterterrorism Policies 212
Kathryn Olmsted
15 A Hyphenated Legacy? Obama's Africa Policy 227
Jacob Dlamini
16 Criticize and Thrive: The American Left in the Obama Years 246
Michael Kazin
17 Civic Ideals, Race, and Nation in the Age of Obama 261
Gary Gerstle
Notes 281
List of Contributors 327
Index 331

An original and engaging account of the Obama years from a group of leading political historians
Barack Obama's election as the first African American president seemed to usher in a new era, and he took office in 2009 with great expectations. But by his second term, Republicans controlled Congress, and, after the 2016 presidential election, Obama's legacy and the health of the Democratic Party itself appeared in doubt. In The Presidency of Barack Obama, Julian Zelizer gathers leading American historians to put President Obama and his administration into political and historical context.
These writers offer strikingly original assessments of the big issues that shaped the Obama years, including the conservative backlash, race, the financial crisis, health care, crime, drugs, counterterrorism, Iraq and Afghanistan, the environment, immigration, education, gay rights, and urban policy. Together, these essays suggest that Obama's central paradox is that, despite effective policymaking, he failed to receive credit for his many achievements and wasn't a party builder. Provocatively, they ask why Obama didn't unite Democrats and progressive activists to fight the conservative counter-tide as it grew stronger.
Engaging and deeply informed, The Presidency of Barack Obama is a must-read for anyone who wants to better understand Obama and the uncertain aftermath of his presidency.
Contributors include Sarah Coleman, Jacob Dlamini, Gary Gerstle, Risa Goluboff, Meg Jacobs, Peniel Joseph, Michael Kazin, Matthew Lassiter, Kathryn Olmsted, Eric Rauchway, Richard Schragger, Paul Starr, Timothy Stewart-Winter, Thomas Sugrue, Jeremi Suri, Julian Zelizer, and Jonathan Zimmerman.

Julian E. Zelizer is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University and a CNN Political Analyst. He is the author and editor of eighteen books on American political history, has written hundreds of op-eds, and appears regularly on television as a news commentator.