Newswise — The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama is a “shocking” development with interesting parallels and contrasts to events of a century ago, says a presidential historian at the University of Indianapolis.
Presidents Theodore Roosevelt (1906) and Woodrow Wilson (1919) also received the prize, but much later in their terms and for efforts that involved more direct intervention on specific issues, says Edward Frantz, Ph.D., associate professor of history at UIndy.
“This suggests a world community that is pining for any sort of hope that Obama represents a new kind of diplomacy,” Frantz says. “Wilson is probably the closest analog, except there you had the end of a world war and a guy promising a new world order.”
Ironically, he notes, Obama is receiving the award while the United States is actively involved in military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and while he is being criticized in some circles for not differentiating himself enough from the policies of the preceding Bush administration.
“The public and historians still go back and forth on whether Wilson’s legacy is a positive one,” Frantz says. “I’m sure people will ask that about Obama.”
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