The New Institute
First Meeting for 2010
Obama’s first year: -A record we can believe in?
Tuesday, March 9th, 7pm
To great international fanfare, Barack Obama won the White House in 2008 promising Americans change they could believe in. But now, little more than a year into his presidency, conventional wisdom suggests that Obama has failed to change much at all and that his whole agenda is in serious jeopardy.
To open the New Institute’s program of public forums for 2010 we welcome back Dr Michael Ondaatje, local expert on American history and politics, to review the first year of the Obama presidency – and expectations for the next year.
Surveying the ups and downs of Obama’s first year in Washington, his lecture cuts through the media spin to offer a fresh and historically-informed assessment of the president’s early record in both domestic and foreign policy. Looking beyond simple analysis of Obama “the man,” he also scrutinizes the wider American political culture, considering how different groups and institutions have responded to the President and what their responses reveal about power and society in twenty-first century America.
Dr. Michael Ondaatje is Lecturer in American History at the University of Newcastle. He is a prize-winning teacher and author, whose recent book – Black Conservative Intellectuals in Modern America – was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in December 2009. He is currently busy writing a book about Barack Obama for UWA Press. Michael is also a regular commentator on American history and politics for ABC radio and The Herald newspaper.
THIS MEETING IS OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC.
VENUE: South Leagues Club, Llewllyn St. Merewether.
DATE: Tuesday 9th March 2010
TIME: 7.00 till 8.30pm
ADMISSION: $5 or more (donation to the New Institute)
FURTHER INFORMATION: Angie Di Lorenzo 0422 401129.