{"id":20952,"date":"2021-01-21T09:50:29","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T14:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/?p=20952"},"modified":"2024-07-03T19:50:10","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T23:50:10","slug":"daniel-mcneil-examines-bidens-call-to-restore-the-soul-of-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/2021\/daniel-mcneil-examines-bidens-call-to-restore-the-soul-of-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel McNeil Examines Biden&#8217;s Call to Restore the Soul of America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Daniel McNeil Examines Biden&#8217;s Call to Restore the Soul of America\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"160\" height=\"160\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/Daniel-IMG_6194-cropped-160x160.jpg\" alt=\"Daniel McNeil headshot in front of green tree branches\" class=\"wp-image-18491\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/Daniel-IMG_6194-cropped-160x160.jpg 160w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/Daniel-IMG_6194-cropped-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/Daniel-IMG_6194-cropped-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/Daniel-IMG_6194-cropped-240x240.jpg 240w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/Daniel-IMG_6194-cropped-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/Daniel-IMG_6194-cropped-400x400.jpg 400w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/Daniel-IMG_6194-cropped-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/Daniel-IMG_6194-cropped-360x360.jpg 360w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/Daniel-IMG_6194-cropped.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Below is a short excerpt from History Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/people\/daniel-mcneil\/\">Daniel McNeil<\/a>&#8216;s article in The Conversation following Biden&#8217;s inauguration speech. The full article, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/post-inauguration-restoring-the-soul-of-bidens-america-must-be-truly-inclusive-150243\">Post-Inauguration, restoring the soul of Biden&#8217;s America must be truly inclusive<\/a>,&#8221; can be found online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the past few months, I\u2019ve been editing a book about soulful beliefs, practices and feelings that overflow from their religious and spiritual origins into secular and profane spaces. I\u2019ve also been wondering what Joe Biden means when he talks about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/95268089-1178-4bbe-b41f-ce3e3d5dac8a\">restoring the soul of America<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a country fatigued by COVID-19, Zoom calls and a president who thought he was entitled to grab the bodies and attention of his fellow Americans, it appears that Biden wants to offer us some solace. A politics of kindness that permits intentional listening and introspection. Or at least a news cycle that is less taxing, chaotic and demanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such discussions of the American soul are often interpreted through the prism of Biden\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/religion\/2021\/01\/11\/catholic-grief-joe-biden\/\">Catholicism<\/a> and Irish ancestry. On occasion, they are also read as a sign that we will be returning to the tone and texture of the Barack Obama years and the calm authority of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=95054388\">no-drama Obama<\/a>.\u201d Yet they are rarely connected to what the African American intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois called the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/292303\/the-souls-of-black-folk-by-w-e-b-du-bois-introduction-by-ibram-x-kendi-notes-by-monica-e-elbert\/\">souls of Black folk<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It remains difficult for Americans who live in a racially segregated country to consider how African American social and political thought might have informed the thinking of an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/10\/17\/us\/politics\/joe-biden-college-1960s.html\">\u201caverage Irish guy\u201d<\/a> about soul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Below is a short excerpt from History Professor Daniel McNeil&#8216;s article in The Conversation following Biden&#8217;s inauguration speech. The full article, &#8220;Post-Inauguration, restoring the soul of Biden&#8217;s America must be truly inclusive,&#8221; can be found online. Over the past few months, I\u2019ve been editing a book about soulful beliefs, practices and feelings that overflow from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20953,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20952\/revisions\/20953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}