Obama’s Time: A History

Historian Keller (America’s Three Regimes) may very well be right that President Obama’s time in the White House will not be regarded as a historic era, but he strikes an uneasy balance between impartial survey and partisan critique in what purports to be a balanced look at the current administration. In the preface, he describes himself as “pathologically fair-minded,” noting that he would be happy “if Obama’s supporters find this book to be overly critical” and “opponents find it to be too favorable.” The text, however, situates itself squarely on the right side of the political aisle, describing the Valerie Plame affair as “highly factitious” and suggesting that the Benghazi tragedy merits comparison with Watergate. Similarly, conservative readers will surely be more receptive than liberal ones when Keller refers to an era of heavy government regulation as the “License Raj” or to global warming as the “one-time doomsayers’ label of choice.” Readers of any political persuasion, however, may blanch at Keller’s most far-reaching statements, such as when, comparing the U.S.’s current political polarization to past controversies, he writes that “the Vietnam War ended without the nation being torn apart by it.” This study will sit more comfortably among the many Obama critiques already published than in the unoccupied spot reserved for the as-yet-unwritten definitive book on the 44th president. (Jan.)