Here are the historians who think obama would make a great president and their statement on why he'd be a good president.
Historians for Obama
Manan Ahmed, Shawn Leigh Alexander, Catherine Allgor, Laura Anker, Joyce Appleby, Ray Arsenault, Robert Baker, Lewis V. Baldwin, Christopher Bates, Rosalyn Baxandall, Robert L. Beisner, Doron Ben-Atar, William C. Berman, David Blight, Ruth Bloch, Daniel Bluestone, Edward J. Blum, Carolyn A. Brown, Mari Jo Buhle, Paul Buhle, Randolph Campbell, Charles Capper, Clayborne Carson, John Chavez, William Cohen, Dennis Cordell, Mary F. Corey, George Cotkin, Edward Countryman, Daniel W. Crofts, Robert Dallek, Jared N. Day, John d'Entremont, Dennis C. Dickerson, David Doyle, Jr., David V. Du Fault, W. Marvin Dulaney, Gretchen Cassel Eick, Carolyn Eisenberg, J. Michael Farmer, Michael Fellman, Antonio Feros, Peter Filene, Kenneth Fones-Wolf, William E. Forbath, Shannon Frystak, Matthew Gabriele, Lloyd Gardner, David Gellman, James Gilbert, Toni Gilpin, Rebecca A. Goetz, Warren Goldstein, Linda Gordon, Anthony T. Grafton, Will Gravely, James Green, Sara M. Gregg, Robert Griffith, Michael Grossberg, James Grossman, Carol S. Gruber, Joshua Guild, Roland L. Guyotte, David Hall, Kenneth Hamilton, J. William Harris, Nancy A. Hewitt, Jonathan Holloway, Jeffrey Houghtby, Tera W. Hunter, Harold Hyman, Maurice Jackson, Lisa Jacobson, Randal Jelks, John Jentz, Benjamin H. Johnson, David A. Johnson, Robert KC Johnson, Jennifer M. Jones, Patrick D. Jones, Peniel E. Joseph, Michael Kazin, Ari Kelman, Richard H. King, Sarah Knott, Melinda Lawson, Steven Lawson, Jackson Lears, Alan Lessoff, Edward T. Linenthal, William A. Link, James Livingston, Paul K. Longmore, Ralph E. Luker, J. Fred MacDonald, Chandra Manning, Norman Markowitz, Kevin Mattson, Martha May, Timothy Patrick McCarthy, Joseph A. McCartin, Robert S. McElvaine, Marjorie McLellan, James McPherson, Tony Michels, Walter Moss, Todd Moye, Joan Neuberger, Michelle Nickerson, David O'Brien, William L. O'Neill, William A. Pencak, Claire Potter, Michael Punke, David Quigley, Stephen G. Rabe, Albert J. Raboteau, Monica A. Rankin, Janice Reiff, Leo Ribuffo, Natalie J. Ring, Ruth Rosen, Peter Rothstein, Edward B. Rugemer, Douglas C. Sackman, Leonard J. Sadosky, Nick Salvatore, Brian Sandberg, John Savage, Martha Saxton, Ellen W. Schrecker, Rachel F. Seidman, Brett L. Shadle, James Sidbury, Daniel J. Singal, Manisha Sinha, Harvard Sitkoff, Daniel Soyer, Paul Spickard, Brian Steele, James Brewer Stewart, Jeffrey Stewart, Mary Stroll, David Thelen, Jeffrey Trask, Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs, Bruce M. Tyler, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Kara Dixon Vuic, David J. Weber, Barbara Weinstein, Richard Weiss, Kathleen Wellman, Daniel Wickberg, Craig Steven Wilder, Margaret Williams, R. Hal Williams, David W. Wills, Charters Wynn, Susan Yohn, Eli Zaretsky
HNN Editor: The list of signers was updated 2-3-08.
Our country is in serious trouble. The gap between the wealthy elite and the working majority grows ever larger, tens of millions of Americans lack health insurance and others risk bankruptcy when they get seriously ill, and many public schools do a poor job of educating the next generation. Due to the arrogant, inept foreign policy of the current administration, more people abroad mistrust and fear the United States than at any time since the height of the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, global warming speeds toward an unprecedented catastrophe. Many Republicans and overwhelming numbers of Independents and Democrats believe that, under George W. Bush, the nation has badly lost its way. The 2008 election thus comes at a critical time in the history of the United States and the world.
We endorse Barack Obama for president because we think he is the candidate best able to address and start to solve these profound problems. As historians, we understand that no single individual, even a president, leads alone or outside a thick web of context. As Abraham Lincoln wrote to a friend during the Civil War, "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."
However, a president can alter the mood of the nation, making changes possible that once seemed improbable. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and kept the nation united; Franklin D. Roosevelt persuaded Americans to embrace Social Security and more democratic workplaces; John F. Kennedy advanced civil rights and an anti-poverty program.
Barack Obama has the potential to be that kind of president. He has the varied background of a global citizen: his father was African, his stepfather Indonesian, his mother worked in the civil rights movement, and he spent several years of his childhood overseas. As an adult, he has been a community organizer, a law professor, and a successful politician - both at the state and national level. These experiences have given him an acute awareness of the inequalities of race and class, while also equipping him to speak beyond them.
Obama's platform is ambitious, yet sensible. He calls for negotiating the abolition of nuclear weapons, providing universal and affordable health insurance, combatting poverty by adding resources and discouraging destructive habits, investing in renewable energy sources, and engaging with unfriendly nations to ease conflicts that could otherwise lead to war. He takes more forthright stands on these issues than do his major Democratic competitors.
But it is his qualities of mind and temperament that really separate Obama from the rest of the pack. He is a gifted writer and orator who speaks forcefully but without animus. 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. Like Kennedy, he also inspires young people who see him as a great exception in a political world that seems mired in cynicism and corruption.
As president, Barack Obama would only begin the process of healing what ails our society and ensuring that the U.S. plays a beneficial role in the world. But we believe he is that rare politician who can stretch the meaning of democracy, who can help revive what William James called "the civic genius of the people." We invite other historians to add your name to this statement.Manan Ahmed, Cliopatria*
Shawn Leigh Alexander, University of Kansas
Catherine Allgor, University of California, Riverside
Laura Anker, SUNY, Old Westbury
Joyce Appleby, University of California, Los Angeles
Ray Arsenault, University of South Florida
Robert Baker, Georgia State University
Lewis V. Baldwin, Vanderbilt University
Christopher Bates, California State Polytechnic, Pomona
Rosalyn Baxandall, SUNY/Old Westbury
Robert L. Beisner, American University
Doron Ben-Atar, Fordham University
William C. Berman, University of Toronto
David Blight, Yale University
Ruth Bloch, University of California, Los Angeles
Daniel Bluestone, University of Virginia
Edward J. Blum, San Diego State University
Carolyn A. Brown, Rutgers University
Mari Jo Buhle, Brown University
Paul Buhle, Brown University
Randolph Campbell, University of North Texas
Charles Capper, Boston University
Clayborne Carson, Stanford University
John Chavez, Southern Methodist University
William Cohen, Hope College
Dennis Cordell, Southern Methodist University
Mary F. Corey, University of California, Los Angeles
George Cotkin, California Polytechnic Institute
Edward Countryman, Southern Methodist University
Daniel W. Crofts, The College of New Jersey
Robert Dallek, Boston University
Jared N. Day, Carnegie Mellon University
John d'Entremont, Randolph College
Dennis C. Dickerson, Vanderbilt University
David Doyle, Jr., Southern Methodist University
David V. Du Fault, San Diego State University
W. Marvin Dulaney, College of Charleston
Gretchen Cassel Eick, Friends University
Carolyn Eisenberg, Hofstra University
J. Michael Farmer, University of Texas, Dallas
Michael Fellman, Simon Fraser University
Antonio Feros, University of Pennsylvania
Peter Filene, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Kenneth Fones-Wolf, University of West Virginia
William E. Forbath, University of Texas, Austin
Shannon Frystak, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania
Matthew Gabriele, Virginia Tech
Lloyd Gardner, Rutgers University
David Gellman, DePauw University
James Gilbert, University of Maryland
Toni Gilpin, Chicago, Illinois
Rebecca A. Goetz, Rice University
Warren Goldstein, University of Hartford
Linda Gordon, New York University
Anthony T. Grafton, Princeton University
Will Gravely, University of Denver
James Green, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Sara M. Gregg, Iowa State University
Robert Griffith, American University
Michael Grossberg, Indiana University
James Grossman, Newberry Library
Carol S. Gruber, William Paterson University
Joshua Guild, Princeton University
Roland L. Guyotte, University of Minnesota, Morris
David Hall, Harvard University
Kenneth Hamilton, Southern Methodist University
J. William Harris, University of New Hampshire
Nancy A. Hewitt, Rutgers University
Jonathan Holloway, Yale University
Jeffrey Houghtby, Iowa State University
Tera W. Hunter, Princeton University
Harold Hyman, Rice University
Maurice Jackson, Georgetown University
Lisa Jacobson, University of California, Santa Barbara
Randal Jelks, Calvin College
John Jentz, Marquette University
Benjamin H. Johnson, Southern Methodist University
David A. Johnson, Portland State University
Robert KC Johnson, Brooklyn College
Jennifer M. Jones, Rutgers University
Patrick D. Jones, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Peniel E. Joseph, Brandeis University
Michael Kazin, Georgetown University
Ari Kelman, University of California, Davis
Richard H. King, University of Nottingham
Sarah Knott, Indiana University
Melinda Lawson, Union College
Steven Lawson, Rutgers University
Jackson Lears, Rutgers University
Alan Lessoff, Illinois State University
Edward T. Linenthal, Indiana University
William A. Link, University of Florida
James Livingston, Rutgers University
Paul K. Longmore, San Francisco State University
Ralph E. Luker, Cliopatria
J. Fred MacDonald, Northeastern Illinois University
Chandra Manning, Georgetown University
Norman Markowitz, Rutgers University
Kevin Mattson, Ohio University
Martha May, Western Connecticut State University
Timothy Patrick McCarthy, Harvard University
Joseph A. McCartin, Georgetown University
Robert S. McElvaine, Millsaps College
Marjorie McLellan, Wright State University
James McPherson, Princeton University
Tony Michels, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Walter Moss, Eastern Michigan University
Todd Moye, University of North Texas
Joan Neuberger, University of Texas, Austin
Michelle Nickerson, University of Texas, Dallas
David O'Brien, College of the Holy Cross
William L. O'Neill, Rutgers University
William A. Pencak, Pennsylvania State University
Claire Potter, Wesleyan University
Michael Punke, University of Montana
David Quigley, Boston College
Stephen G. Rabe, University of Texas, Dallas
Albert J. Raboteau, Princeton University
Monica A. Rankin, University of Texas, Dallas
Janice Reiff, University of California, Los Angeles
Leo Ribuffo, George Washington University
Natalie J. Ring, University of Texas, Dallas
Ruth Rosen, University of California, Berkeley
Peter Rothstein, Juniata College
Edward B. Rugemer, Yale University
Douglas C. Sackman, University of Puget Sound
Leonard J. Sadosky, Iowa State University
Nick Salvatore, Cornell University
Brian Sandberg, Northern Illinois University
John Savage, Lehigh University
Martha Saxton, Amherst College
Ellen W. Schrecker, Yeshiva University
Rachel F. Seidman, Duke University
Brett L. Shadle, Virginia Tech
James Sidbury, University of Texas at Austin
Daniel J. Singal, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Manisha Sinha, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Harvard Sitkoff, University of New Hampshire
Daniel Soyer, Fordham University
Paul Spickard, University of California, Santa Barbara
Brian Steele, University of Alabama, Birmingham
James Brewer Stewart, Macalester College
Jeffrey Stewart, George Mason University
Mary Stroll, University of California, San Diego
David Thelen, Indiana University
Jeffrey Trask, New York University
Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs, Helena, Montana
Bruce M. Tyler, University of Louisville
Siva Vaidhyanathan, University of Virginia
Kara Dixon Vuic, Bridgewater College
David J. Weber, Southern Methodist University
Barbara Weinstein, New York University
Richard Weiss, University of California, Los Angeles
Kathleen Wellman, Southern Methodist University
Daniel Wickberg, University of Texas, Dallas
Craig Steven Wilder, Dartmouth College
Margaret Williams, William Patterson University
R. Hal Williams, Southern Methodist University
David W. Wills, Amherst College
Charters Wynn, University of Texas, Austin
Susan Yohn, Hofstra University
Eli Zaretsky, New School for Social Research
*Institutional affiliations are listed for identification purposes only and, of course, do not indicate an institutional endorsement.
Ralph Luker: Historians and the Obama Campaign
Michael Kazin: Surging for Obama
HNN Index: Historians as activists
