Forthcoming book by Robert Putnam, Tom Clark and Ed Fieldhouse says a British Obama is possible
In electing Barack Obama, the United States has not only chosen a leader who embodies the union of black and white America. It has also selected a President who reflects the ties between established Americans and new arrivals. His white Kansan mother did not only marry a black man, but also a man born abroad. Obama has won real power, but does his arrival also reflect wider change in the treatment of America’s immigrants and minorities? And if so, are similar changes underway in the UK? Or is it true, as Obama himself has suggested, that his story is a uniquely American one?
These are among the questions addressed in a new book by Harvard’s Robert Putnam, the best-selling author of Bowling Alone, which is co-authored by the Guardian writer Tom Clark. It draws on sweeping, collaborative research by a distinguished team from Harvard and Manchester Universities. The most obvious question for Britons is whether the Obama phenomenon could happen in the UK. Despite some caveats – especially the small though growing black British political class - the answer is a resounding “yes”.
Read Tom Clark’s Guardian Op-Ed on the prospects for a British Obama here
4 comments:
so immigrants coming to a country, finding success, and gaining the accompanied political power is scary?
11:18-
What's scary is the way the liberal elite at places like Harvard (can you say Louis Gates?) and Yale and their students -- Bill, Hillary, Bush and Barack -- have so much power because of the main stream media and wealthy sporsors who play them like violins.
Most of them never had a real job.
And when they have to deal with the rest of us they claim discrimination (can you say Louis Gates?) or political correctness.
What's scary is that republicans keep complaining about politicians being educated.
I want my president/senator/congressman to be the elite Ivy League educated scholar.
I think we had 8 interesting years with the guy you would have a beer with.
Bush is a liberal? And why does the right scream main stream media when Fox News is the #1 cable news channel and conserves run talk radio (both by the numbers and by their own admission)? And sorry if instead of going to college, you decided to work at the Perdue. Don't you guys on the right always say people should live by their decisions? So if they all decided to go to school, and they kicked butt while there, they deserve the opportunities afforded to them for seeking a higher education. Didn't you have the same opportunity?
And I'm sorry to hear you are still pissed at Gates. I tell you what, let a black cop arrest you in your own home for shouting at him; I'll be you'll be begging Beck to run a special on how the black cop must of been racist.
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