Theda Skocpol
Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, Harvard University
September 19, 2012 — 4:10 PMAlumni House, Toll Room — UC Berkeley Campus
About the Lecture 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 … Continued
Alumni House, Toll Room - UC Berkeley Campus Berkeley Graduate Lectures [email protected] false MM/DD/YYYYAbout the Lecture
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).