Problems with Progress: A Historical Perspective on the Presidency (1/15/2009)

Duration
1:06:15

Leon Litwack, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Historian; Professor, UC Berkeley (retired); Author, How Free Is Free
James Taylor, Associate Professor of Politics, University of San Francisco
Richard Thompson Ford, George E. Osborne Professor of Law, Stanford Law School; Author, The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse

As the nation prepares to inaugurate its first African-American president, Americans wonder if our country can truly become colorblind. At its core, the story of America is the constant redefining of the ideas most central to the Constitution: liberty, freedom and equality. How will Obama’s victory shape American history? How far have we come as a result of this past election, and how much farther do we still need to go? Join some quintessential American historians as they unveil the pitfalls and triumphs this election has delivered upon the American psyche.

This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club on January 15, 2009.