Godfrey Hodgson was director of the Reuters' Foundation Programme at Oxford University, and before that the Observer's correspondent in the United States and foreign editor of the Independent. He reported the presidential elections of 1964, 1968, 1972, and 1976 for various British and American media, and was co-author (with Lewis Chester and Bruce Page) of the best-selling account of the 1968 campaign, An American Melodrama (Viking Press, 1969). Among his other books are The World Turned Right Side Up: a history of the conservative ascendancy in America (Houghton Mifflin, 1996); The Gentleman from New York: Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (Houghton Mifflin, 2000); and More Equal Than Others: America from Nixon to the new century (Princeton University Press, 2006).

Recent articles

The constraints he will inherit mean that the United States president-elect will be a change-maker not a miracle-worker, says Godfrey Hodgson.

The victory of Barack Obama is a decisive rejection of the conservative ascendancy in United States politics. The test now is to make the promise of change a reality, says Godfrey Hodgson

The everyday hardships of United States citizens are now centre-stage in the presidential contest – in a way that helps Barack Obama. But could race still influence the outcome, asks Godfrey Hodgson.

The rejection of the deal to save the United States's financial system is part of a wider victory of the American people who said "no" to an establishment fix, says Godfrey Hodgson  Plus: track the debate with openDemocracy's netvibes page

(This article was first published on 29 September 2008)

The Republican portrayal of "its" America as a fresh and radical challenge to establishment power distorts reality to ill effect even as it draws on potent historical resources, says Godfrey Hodgson.