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The Review

The Obama Issue

Obama cover2

Barack Obama has had a consequential presidency. In this special issue of The Chronicle Review, we turn our attention to the accomplishments and disappointments of the past eight years. What has Obama meant for higher education and the broader world of ideas? What will be his intellectual and cultural legacy? And what lies ahead for America in the wake of his presidency?

Barack Obama’s Imprint on Higher Education 1
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Barack Obama’s Imprint on Higher Education
By Michael S. Roth
Gains in college attainment have been modest over the past eight years. Did the 44th president fail to deliver?
Main Head Line One with a second line 2
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Obama’s Imprint on Higher Ed: Responses
Danielle Allen, Janet Halley, Raynard S. Kington, Anthony P. Carnevale, Marta Tienda, and Jamie Merisotis respond to Michael S. Roth.
The Class of 2013 at Morehouse College heard President Obama give the commencement address.
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Obama’s Betrayal of HBCUs
By Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
After Obama, historically black colleges are at greater risk.
President Barack Obama walks with Bernie Sanders through the Colonnade for a meeting in the Oval Office.
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Free Public College: Utopian No More
By Angus Johnston
Free public higher education is no longer a laughable idea. #ThanksObama
Barack Obama greets a young guest during a White House reception for African-American History Month in February 2016.
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Making History
By Ruth J. Simmons
The first black Ivy League president reflects on the first black U.S. president.
Did Obama’s Blackness Matter? 1
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Did Obama’s Blackness Matter?
By Tom Bartlett
How race affected nearly everything the president touched.
Meritocracy in Obama’s Gilded Age 1
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Meritocracy in Obama’s Gilded Age
By Aziz Rana
Meritocracy and the modern university.
Hope Hangover 1
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Hope Hangover
By Samuel Moyn
It’s time for a more realistic idealism.
The First Feminist President 1
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The First Feminist President
By Crystal Feimster
Appreciating an overlooked legacy.
President Obama commemorates the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," the 1965 civil-rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.
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How Obama Sees America
By James T. Kloppenberg
Democracy, he reminds us, is a work in progress.
The Intellectual as President 1
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The Intellectual as President
By Kevin Mattson
Did it matter that Obama was one of us?
Dinners With the President 1
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Dinners With the President
By David M. Kennedy
Watching history unfold over salad.