A year on from Barack Obama's inauguration, Simon Schama examines the issue that more than any other will determine the fate of his presidency: Afghanistan. It's a war which Obama inherited but which he has pledged to continue fighting - a conflict that will cost many more American and British lives. As Simon Schama explains, it wasn't just a political miscalculation which landed the US and its allies in military crisis, but a historical miscalculation - a refusal to learn from the conflicts of the past. By committing America and its allies to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, George Bush and the neocons allowed the battle against the Taliban to slide. The neocons were obsessed with World War Two, and persuaded themselves that both wars would - like the Second World War - be glorious liberations; decisive military victories. However, as Schama discovers, it's not to World War II, but to America's forgotten war in Korea, that US policymakers should have looked if they wanted to understand the thorny reality of America's twentieth-century conflicts. The president who took America into Korea was Harry Truman. As Simon Schama explains, in Truman's handling of this bloody war, and in his statesmanship at a time of international crisis, there are profound lessons for Obama today.

Campaign promises of hope and change were met by a cratering economy, two never-ending wars, an epidemic of gun violence, and a surging partisan divide. In this 4-part series the president's inner circle, Congressional leaders, and journalists reflect on Barack Obama's historic two terms and the tightrope he walked as the country’s first African-American President.

Featuring insightful interviews with friends and family members, as well as previously unreleased footage of Obama's campaign

Artist Ron English travels across the country illegally putting up artwork of President Obama and Abraham Lincoln merged together.

Tens of thousands of fresh American troops are now on the move in Afghanistan, led by a new commander and armed with a counterinsurgency plan that builds on the lessons of Iraq. But can U.S. forces succeed in a land long known as the “graveyard of empires”? FRONTLINE producers Martin Smith (Beyond Baghdad, Return of the Taliban) and Marcela Gaviria (In Search of Al Qaeda, The War Briefing) once again make the dangerous journey to the front lines of America’s biggest fight. Through interviews with the top U.S. commanders on the ground, embeds with U.S. forces and fresh reporting from Washington, Smith and Gaviria examine U.S. counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan — a fight that promises to be longer and more costly than most Americans understand. [Explore more stories on the original website for Obama’s War.]

During President Obama's terms extreme energy extraction grew faster than anyone could have predicted, putting the 17 million people in America who live within one mile of a new gas or oil rig in harm's way.

Military and diplomatic leaders examine some of the choices President Barack Obama faces regarding the Islamic State and the civil war in Syria.

A serious health scare ignites John Thomas, an insurance salesman in his 50s, to take a closer look at his life. Motivated by a misguided obsession with getting Barack Obama elected, John takes an overwhelming involvement in the Presidential campaign. While John becomes obsessed with the ideal of change that Obama represents for Americans, he has in turn neglected to create positive change in his own life, particularly with regard to his health and familial relationships. John hides his health problems from his strong, yet supportive wife, Molly, creating a strain on their marriage. John seeks the support of a Republican relative, MLK, who initially starkly resists supporting a Democratic candidate. John's son, Kalil, rebels against his father's avid support of Obama by supporting the Republican candidate as well. John neglects to support his daughter, Tamika, at a crucial moment in her life...

Om, a debt-ridden NRI, wants to sell his ancestral property to pay his debts, but things turn awry when he is kidnapped by gangsters who believe him to be a rich target.

He was elected as the 44th President of the United States simply for being Obama: voters, tired of what America had become, responded to his persona, his message and what he embodied - hope. Obama was in many ways a mirror, a mirror in which millions of Americans saw reflected their personal ideals: ideals of justice, tolerance and equality. After spending two tumultuous terms in office, through a period of geopolitical upheaval and economic crisis, it is easy to forget how the young president captivated the world simply by being 'Obama'.