Academic Narratives on the Obama Legacy

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine early understandings of the Obama legacy among presidential scholars. From the vast commentary on Obama and his legacy, we abstracted hundreds of statements and then sampled 40 of these representing various aspects of the Obama presidency. This 40 item Q sample and detailed instructions were sent to 150 presidential scholars who were asked to render their opinion on the Obama Legacy by ranking the 40 items. Responses were received from 26 academics and the analysis produced four competing narratives on the Obama legacy.