Theda Skocpol to Give Class of 1930 Lecture on May 1st - “The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism”

Plan to join us on May 1, 2012 for the Class of 1930 Lecture, which will take place 4:30-6:00 pm in Room 003, Rockefeller Center.

“The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism”
Theda Skocpol
Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, Harvard University

On February 19, 2009, CNBC commentator Rick Santelli delivered a dramatic rant against Obama Administration programs to shore up the plunging housing market. Invoking the Founding Fathers and ridiculing "losers" who could not pay their mortgages, Santelli called for "Tea Party" protests. Over the next two years, conservative activists took to the streets and airways, built hundreds of local Tea Party groups, and weighed in with votes and money to help right-wing Republicans win electoral victories in 2010. In this penetrating new study, Harvard University's Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson go beyond images of protesters in Colonial costumes to provide a nuanced portrait of the Tea Party. What they find is sometimes surprising.

Theda Skocpol is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. At Harvard, she has served as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (2005-2007) and as Director of the Center for American Political Studies (2000-2006). In 1996, Skocpol served as President of the Social Science History Association and, in 2002-03, she served as President of the American Political Science Association. Skocpol has also been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Sciences. Her work covers a broad spectrum of topics including both comparative politics (States and Social Revolutions, 1979) and American politics (Protecting Soldiers and Mothers, 1992). Her books and articles have been widely cited in political science literature and have won numerous awards. Skocpol's research focuses on U.S. social policy and civic engagement in American democracy. Her most recent books are Health Care Reform and American Politics, 2010 (with Lawrence R. Jacobs), Reaching for a New Deal: Ambitious Governance, Economic Meltdown, and Polarized Politics in Obama’s First Two Years, 2011 (co-edited with Lawrence R. Jacobs), and The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism, 2011 (with Vanessa Williamson).

See a listing of all upcoming Spring 2012 Public Programs here.