Jefferson LECTURE SERIES

Obama, the Tea Party, and the Future of American Politics

Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, Harvard University

September 19, 2012 — 4:10 PM
Toll Room, Alumni House, UC Berkeley Campus.
CONSTRUCTION ADVISORY: Due to Lower Sproul construction starting early March 2013, nearby parking and access to this venue may be limited or affected. Please allow extra time for arrival. Questions: contact Alumni House Events at 510.642.1892.

In this lecture, Theda Skocpol surveys the current political landscape and explores its most consequential questions: What happened to Obama’s “new New Deal”? Why have his achievements enraged opponents more than they have satisfied supporters? How has the Tea Party’s ascendance reshaped American politics?  At this moment of economic uncertainty and extreme polarization, as voters prepare to render another verdict on Obama’s historic presidency, she reviews its triumphs and setbacks to see where we might be headed next.

About Theda Skocpol

Theda Skocpol has made significant contributions to the fields of comparative and American politics. In 2007, she was awarded the prestigious Johan Skytte Prize for her “visionary analysis of the significance of the state for revolutions, welfare, and political trust, pursued with theoretical depth and empirical evidence.” Skocpol’s early work, States and Social Revolutions (1979), demonstrates the importance of “state structures, international forces and class relations” to the French, Russian and Chinese revolutions (Cambridge UP). Her 2003 work Diminished Democracy tracks the decline of civic engagement in the past few decades. Skopcol’s current research takes up the pressing issues of health care reform and other federal policies in the Obama era.

A prolific writer, Skocpol is also the author of Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States (1992), Boomerang: Clinton’s Health Security Effort and the Turn Against Government in US Politics (1996), and Healthcare Reform and American Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know (2010). Skocpol has contributed numerous articles to scholarly journals and magazines for the general public including The American Prospect and The New York Times. Her latest books include Health Care Reform and American Politics (Oxford, 2011), The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism (Oxford, 2012), and Obama and America's Political Future (Harvard, 2012).

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