As an agenda, it was impressive. Jobs, immigration reform, climate change, equal pay for women, the minimum wage, troop withdrawal, universal pre-school provision for the poor, gun control, voting reform – this was unapologetic in its liberalism and unstinting in its determination.

On the 10th floor of the University of ­Illinois' school of public health, Dr Gary ­Slutkin points to a map of Chicago with dots showing where murders have taken place. Lake ­Michigan lies to the east, the north is mostly clear, but some areas of the south and the west, including ­Englewood, are covered in dots.

On 27 January CBS aired an interview with the newly inaugurated President Barack Obama and his outgoing secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, during which the president faced accusations that under his watch America had retreated from its key role in world affairs. "The biggest criticism of this team," said the interviewer," has been [that there is] an abdication of the United States on the world stage, sort of reluctance to become involved in another entanglement."

First lady Michelle Obama flies home to Chicago on Saturday morning to commemorate the short life and tragic death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendelton, whose fatal shooting has taken on significant symbolic resonance both in the city and nationwide.

 

The Rev Jesse Jackson has appealed to Barack Obama to "please come home" to Chicago and address the crisis in American urban life following the fatal shooting of a teenager less than a mile from Obama's house in the city.