Historians, Too, Call Obama Victory “Monumental”
On political morning in America, Partisan arguments were fading from memory, and everybody you bumped into recognized that something huge has happened with the election of Barack Obama. In the grocery line, at the post office, over coffee, all Americans just seem to sense it.
But what do those who take a longer view, who know history well, say about what feels to many like a singular, transcendent moment?
Listen:
“Monumental ... a major shift in the zeitgeist of our times.” That's Douglas Brinkley, the best-selling author and professor of history at Rice University.
“I can't think of another election where the issues were two wars and a crashed economy. There just isn't any historical precedent for this.” So says Joan Hoff, a former president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency in New York City.
“It's an historic turning point ... an exclamation point of major proportions to the civil rights movement that goes back to the 1950s.” That's James McPherson, the renowned author and professor emeritus of history at Princeton University.
Hyperbole?
Hardly, say historians - considering that Obama is the first “nonwhite” to rise to the pinnacle of American power, an undertaking made all the more stunning because it was accomplished long before the citizenry expected it.
And, “the racial milestone will be much larger than we've even imagined in the course of these last couple of years,” says Doris Goodwin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, historian and political commentator.
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But what do those who take a longer view, who know history well, say about what feels to many like a singular, transcendent moment?
Listen:
“Monumental ... a major shift in the zeitgeist of our times.” That's Douglas Brinkley, the best-selling author and professor of history at Rice University.
“I can't think of another election where the issues were two wars and a crashed economy. There just isn't any historical precedent for this.” So says Joan Hoff, a former president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency in New York City.
“It's an historic turning point ... an exclamation point of major proportions to the civil rights movement that goes back to the 1950s.” That's James McPherson, the renowned author and professor emeritus of history at Princeton University.
Hyperbole?
Hardly, say historians - considering that Obama is the first “nonwhite” to rise to the pinnacle of American power, an undertaking made all the more stunning because it was accomplished long before the citizenry expected it.
And, “the racial milestone will be much larger than we've even imagined in the course of these last couple of years,” says Doris Goodwin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, historian and political commentator.