[Editor's note: We invited some of the historians who have worked on our Milestone Documents encyclopedias to share their opinions about Barack Obama's inaugural address. Below are their comments.]

Joan E. Cashin
Ohio State University

President Obama’s inaugural speech was sober, honest, and serious–appropriate for the tremendous problems the country faces. It was a speech by a mature adult with a superb command of the English language. Press reports suggest that he wrote the entire speech himself.

I appreciated the way the president repudiated the anti-intellectual quality of the previous administration. This was evident in Obama’s overall theme–that we can use our intellectual resources to address social, economic, and political problems–and in his specific comments about restoring scientific expertise to decision-making. The previous administration reflected a hostility toward education and the life of the mind that has unfortunately characterized too much of our history.

I also appreciated the way the president discussed citizenship, emphasizing the responsibility to work for the greater good as well as for individual freedoms. He even used the word “collective” at one point, which may be a first for an inaugural speech, at least since World War II.

Last of all, I thought the delivery was excellent.

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Karen Linkletter
California State University, Fullerton

Later generations of the Puritans often lacked the religious fervor of their colonial founders; as New England communities grew and prospered, the pursuit of wealth seemed much more interesting than the pursuit of religious understanding. Worried that these religious “slackers” would anger God and thus provoke his wrath, Puritan ministers preached sermons exhorting the colonists to change their behavior in order to ensure the colony’s survival. These sermons, termed “jeremiads” by the historian Perry Miller, often reminded the younger colonists of their forefathers’ ideals and vision for a godly society.

Although it lacks overt warnings about God’s wrath, Obama’s inaugural address has very much the same tone as a jeremiad. While it is not unusual to hear references to the founding fathers in inaugural addresses, Obama uses the “ideals of our forebearers” as a reference point: America has lost sight of these ideals much like the younger Puritans lost sight of their forebearers’ vision of a harmonious community. He notes America’s “collective failure” to make the “unpleasant decisions” required to face the “difficult task” ahead. Particularly telling, I think, is Obama’s choice of scripture. He cites Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, in which Paul rebukes a community arguing over whom among them are most spiritually gifted. Paul tells the Corinthians to ‘grow up’: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways” (I Corinthians 13:11). Just as Paul tells the Corinthians to put their selfish interests aside for the benefit of the community, Obama calls for an “end to the petty grievances” that divide us. “With eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us,” we will prosper as a nation.

The Puritan jeremiad served to unite the community against dissent, religious decline, and forces beyond human control (today’s forces would include disappearing jobs and plunging stock markets). A virtuous community following God’s law would survive, according to their theology. Obama’s modern version of the jeremiad similarly reminds Americans of their collective errors; like the Puritans, we have lost our vision, our virtue as a community. And, like the Puritan jeremiad, Obama’s speech gives hope after its scolding. If the community changes its ways, we will pass our legacy of freedom to future generations. Did Obama intentionally craft a jeremiad? Perhaps not in name, but certainly in spirit.

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Bradley Skeen
Independent scholar

When Obama referred to the virtues he views as typical of America–honesty, courage, tolerance, loyalty, etc.–he said, “These things are old. These things are true.” He may as well have been talking about the language of his speech. He sees the strength of this nation that Americans must now draw on as lying in our past, and he invokes that past through a speech unusually steeped in intertextual references to our founding documents even for a modern political speech. At the same he dynamically transforms his references to create a new meaning.

To take as an example, one particularly densely referential paragraph:

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

The acknowledged reference is to Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians:

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. (1:13, KJV)

Obama means that the mistakes of the past have to be set aside as America progresses; as we shall see, he particularly means the mistakes of slavery and segregation. Much of the rest of the paragraph recalls other texts. “To choose our better history” echoes “the better angels of our nature,” the closing phrase of Lincoln’s first inaugural address (a text that Obama is very carefully building his own upon, literally using in his oath the same bible that Lincoln did on that occasion). Lincoln’s phrase is an appeal to the South to think of the shared history of America and draw back from succession before it is too late. Obama’s persistent theme, too, is to draw on the shared history of America to build the American future.

The remainder of Obama’s paragraph draws heavily on the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Obama refers to the rights claimed by the declaration as a “precious gift” passed on from generation to generation of Americans. He takes rights with which men are endowed by their creator to be a “God-given promise” that is being fulfilled now. He reinterprets the three rights enumerated in the Declaration as a historical progression: human beings are in their natures equal from the beginning, but freedom from slavery and discrimination was gained only through the struggles of the Civil War and the civil rights movement, and the pursuit of happiness can begin only now that equality is recognized–nowhere more powerfully than in his own presidency. In this he is speaking most directly to the experience of black Americans, but his language tends to make that experience universal by referring to the American founding documents. And, of course, it is all Americans who are diminished by the denial of liberties to some since our system of government depends upon the equality of all.

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Ron Briley
Sandia Preparatory School
Albuquerque, New Mexico

It would be almost impossible for any orator to meet the expectations engendered by the 2008 presidential inaugural, but Barack Obama was up to the task with an inspirational speech emphasizing the accomplishments and promise of everyday Americans. The symbolic value of an African American taking the oath of the presidential office is difficult to articulate in mere words, but Obama captured the moment well when he acknowledged that he was being inaugurated in a city where forty years ago he might not have been served a cup of coffee. There is a long way to go in this country in regard to addressing the inequalities of race and class, but the Obama inaugural certainly demonstrated how far down the road to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream we have traveled. Woodrow Wilson must be rolling in his grave.

Obama conceded that the nation is in a crisis environment, but in his spirit of nonpartisanship the new president did not dwell upon the foreign policy and economic blunders of his predecessor. Neither did Obama quote extensively from presidents such as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, who also inherited a crisis atmosphere. Instead, he embraced the common people of America, who have met the challenges of war, depression, and intolerance in our past, calling upon his fellow citizens to accept the responsibility of rebuilding America and restoring its reputation in the world. In his pragmatic fashion, the president made clear that he envisioned an expanded role for government in addressing issues of global warming, energy production, technology allocation, providing jobs, and repairing infrastructure. This promise of governmental action, however, was balanced with the theme of individual responsibility. Although the spirit of Roosevelt, Lincoln, and Kennedy was evident in the Obama rhetoric, it was history from the bottom up, emphasizing the role of hard-working citizens in the construction of America’s past and future.

In the area of foreign policy, Obama downplayed specifics in favor of patriotic themes. The war on terror was seemingly embraced in a strong statement that the president would take the fight to America’s enemies. There was no major rebuke of the Iraq War, and the president reiterated his commitment to the American military presence in Afghanistan. Although there was no denunciation of torture and pronouncements on Guantanamo Bay, Obama made his differences with the Bush administration apparent when he declared that it was unnecessary to choose between security and liberty. The safety of the country is best maintained through adherence to our constitutional rights. Obama also made it a point to reach out to the world’s Muslim population, denying any clash of civilizations. Obama’s commitment to a more inclusive America, despite Rick Warren delivering the invocation, was evident in his description of America as a nation of Christians and Muslims, Hindus and Jews, and nonbelievers. The recognition that those who do not profess belief in a supreme being are also equal citizens in the land may be a first for any American president in recent years.

The euphoria of the election and inauguration are now behind us, and as President Obama reminds us there is much work to be done after eight years of the Bush administration. The road to economic recovery and peace will be a perilous journey, but the pragmatic and inspirational Obama evokes the spirit of leaders such as Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Kennedy by appealing to our better natures, honoring the contributions of common citizens, and heralding the promise of a new generation.

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Gerard Molyneaux
La Salle University

I see a through line in the transition from Bush to Obama. A lot of the emphasis of the inaugural address was on citizen responsibility in the spirit of the troops at Valley Forge. Around those lines of Obama’s speech are indicators of the same idea at work.

For the first time ever, the Peace Corps was invited to the parade, and each of the returned PC volunteers carried the flag of the country where he/she served. Having interviewed some key PC alumni, I see in Obama the leadership they were hoping for that will put the PC back in the public eye and resurrect the original goal of 10,000 new volunteers a year.

The emphasis on service and responsibility seems to be a marked contrast to the Bush administration’s general indifference to service and to asking the public for any sacrifice. For example, the war in Iraq did not result in higher taxes, nor did it lead to a draft.

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R. Hunt Davis
University of Florida

We just got in as the ceremony was starting. We had a great standing area, looking straight to the Capitol steps and could see everything on the Jumbotron and hear the ceremony.

What a true joy it was to be present for such a momentous occasion. Looking over the crowd from our vantage point made us feel part of a truly major event in our country’s history. Another inspiring dimension was the presence of so many African Americans, who made up at least half and perhaps even more of the people around us. While everyone there was overjoyed to be present, the joy of the African Americans was overwhelming. And, in contrast to the rest of those present, many more were elderly.

A roar went up from the crowd when Barack Obama entered onto the platform, but it was nothing like the cheers that erupted when he took the oath of office and became the 44th president of the United States. His inaugural address was a powerful one that evoked inspiring images of our past and challenged all of us to work together to build a stronger future.