ABSTRACT
This collection of original essays reflects the key themes in American domestic politics in the years after 2008. The contributions are dominated by two major concerns. Firstly, the chapters deal with issues relating directly to the presidency of Barack Obama: his presidential strategies, policy achievements, problems and priorities. Secondly, the chapters examine the political environment in which Obama operated following his election: essentially a political environment of polarization and a resurgent conservatism. The chapters survey this territory from a variety of methodological and attitudinal perspectives. They provide a snapshot of the American national political landscape under a Democratic president, a Congress which shifted dramatically in its political orientation after the Republican gains in the 2010 midterm elections, and a finely balanced Supreme Court. They depict an electoral environment of apparently acute ideological division and (following a key Supreme Court decision of 2010) a high degree of financial deregulation.
