Barack Obama

The long awaited and highly praised first portion of former President Barack Obama's memoir covers the period from his move to Chicago after he graduated from Harvard Law School to the successful operation that eliminated Osama bin Laden in May 2011. We meet an idealistic and driven young man, whose outlook on life and desire to use his education and position for positive change was most strongly influenced by his mother and maternal grandmother, then by his future wife Michelle, who was show more assigned to work with him during his internship with a Chicago law firm. His meteoric rise from a law school professor and local community organizer on the city's South Side, to an Illinois state senator, a US senator and the Democratic nominee for the presidency is chronicled with as much rapidity as it happened in real time, due to his unique ability to tap into the fears, hopes and dreams of a wide variety of Americans, from African American Chicagoans crushed by poverty, to smalll town and rural White Illinoisans who were equally affected by the loss of good manufacturing jobs and increasing unaffordability of health care and other household expenses. Throughout the book we see a man who is a good and compassionate listener, who is not only willing to pay attention and respect to everyone he meets, regardless of race, standing, position, or country, but also actively seeks their thoughts and opinions, regardless of whether that person supports or agrees with him or not, which is his greatest strength as a man, and as one of this country's greatest and most respected presidents by the citizens of the world.

Obama portrays himself as flawed, all too human, and his own greatest critic, as he is harsher on himself than practically anyone else, save for the most obstreperous and despicable politicians and leaders within and outside of the United States. He repeatedly credits his amazing wife Michelle for her support throughout his political career, largely at the expense of her own goals and personal wishes, for keeping him level headed, and for ensuring that their daughters, Sasha and Malia, had as normal as life as possible during the very abnormal circumstances and white hot spotlight that they faced, especially from the extreme right wing politicians and media and those who subscribed to their racist rhetoric.

The strengths of this book are Obama's writing style, which makes the reader feel as if he is having a personal conversation with the former president while sharing a drink in a local pub or restaurant, his ability to explain complicated topics in a clear and concise manner, such as the 2007-2008 global financial crisis that he inherited from his predecessor and successfully managed, the push to pass the Affordable Care Act that provided millions of Americans with health care security for themselves and their families, and the difficult and sticky foreign policy problems he and this country faced, in Iran, Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine, Egypt and other hot spots. His personal portrayals of leaders such as Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Hu Jintao, Hosni Mubarak and others were also enlightening and informative. Just as meaningful are his descriptions of those closest to him, as he acknowledges the importance of the members of his Cabinet, and also gives equal time to his closest aides, including his body man Reggie Love, a former two sport man at Duke, who was as instrumental in keeping him grounded and sane as anyone outside of his immediate family.

A Promised Land is a remarkable and compelling memoir told by a gifted and insightful writer, which engaged and entertained this reader from the first page to the last. It is a valuable addition to the memoirs and biographies of American presidents, and as such it deserves to be widely read by everyone, even those who did not support him. This book absolutely lives up to the hype about it, and I eagerly look forward to the book(s) that cover the remaining six years of his presidency. show less

This is the first installment of Barack Obama’s promised two-volume memoirs. It covers his early life through his presidency up to the killing of Osama Bin Ladin in 2011. It is a thoughtful, self-reflective, well-written account of a very eventful time.

As Obama looks back, he questions some of his decisions, or at least acknowledges that there were legitimate questions about what he did. For example, he is quite aware of all the criticisms for his handling of the 2008 financial crisis and show more the appearance it gave of catering more to greedy bankers than the many ordinary citizens who suffered from their actions.

His approach to that crisis remains part of the disappointment progressives feel over Obama not delivering what they hoped he would. He seems keen to address them, writing that the image of him as “starry-eyed idealist” is not quite accurate. His is instead a pragmatic idealist, influenced by his grandmother. His attitudes and beliefs also show his academic influences: he graduated from Columbia University in 1983, enrolled in Harvard Law School in 1988 where he was the first black person to be president of the Harvard Law Review, and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.

In any event, there were expectations from both liberals and conservatives that his decisions would reflect his race more than his education and temperament, but they never did. Ironically, his vice president, Joe Biden, now the president, has more freedom as a white man to institute policies that help Blacks, since he will not be seen as “biased.”

The perception of Obama by the right was not helped by his infamous description of the rural white working class — “They get bitter, they cling to their guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” He is still brooding over having said this, and the reaction to his remarks.

Obama also addresses his foreign policy moves with respect to Afghanistan and Libya, and it’s hard not to conclude that he still hasn’t come to terms with what would have been the correct approaches to those issues.

On a related note, he discusses his addition of Bob Gates, a Republican, to his administration as Secretary of Defense. He stated that he wanted help to push against his own biases. And in fact, the two men remained somewhat adversarial throughout Obama’s presidency. In Gates’s own memoir about that time, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary of War, Gates made some harsh observations about Obama, writing of Obama’s approach to the Afghanistan war, the president “doesn’t believe in his own strategy, and doesn’t consider the war to be his. For him, it’s all about getting out.”

In hindsight, it looks as if Obama would not entirely disagree with him.

Obama is still incredulous that he was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. “For what?” he asks. The official statement claimed it was for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people.” In addition, “The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.”

While Obama may disagree over whether he deserved the prize it is clear that he was, and remains, committed to “the American idea: what the country was, and what it could become.” In every political campaign in which he has supported Democratic candidates against divisive and racist Republicans, he has assailed his audience with the cry, “America! This is not who we are!” The 74 million who voted for Trump in 2020 tell a different story. But that doesn’t mean Obama’s isn’t worth hearing. He does indeed represent some of the best of American politics, and his observations about other world leaders are valuable.

Evaluation: I listened to the audio version, read by the ex-president himself in his own inimitable cadence. To say listening to the book was sheer joy might be an exaggeration, but not much of one, particularly in light of the arrogant and ignorant rants of his successor. Throughout the book, Obama comes across as an honest, caring, intelligent human being willing to share his extraordinary experiences in a measured, guarded way.

(JAB) show less

This is an excellent autobiography (Part 1) and beautifully written. Obama has a unique ability to explain to the reader somewhat complex material. I loved being behind the scenes, learning what he was thinking even though he would not be able to express these thoughts at the time. As an example, check out pp. 570-571. He is trying to deal with the Deepwater oil spill, and is getting a lot of criticism. Looking back on the transcript from the press conference dealing with this issue, he is show more amazed at how calm he sounds. But then he tells us, for the next few paragraphs, what he would really like to say to them. That's the real gold of the book for me. I read a NYT criticism of the book, saying that he didn't let loose enough and examine his feelings more deeply. I completely disagree. I could feel his passion, and occasional disappointment or anger, on every page. Brilliantly written. Anyone thinking of going into government work should make this book required reading. I will say that I read the bulk of this book during the Trump presidency, and each day, after reading a bit more of the book, I would put the book down with wide eyes, all at once marveling at the sheer competence of Obama, and trying to imagine how Trump could possibly navigate through such a complex, ethically-driven job. The juxtaposition of the skill sets of the two men put me at great unease. show less

Although it can be a bit tough to get into at first, I came to admire how Obama takes the time to lay out the background and give a short history of every person involved in major decisions and every decision he makes in his first term. This gives the reader not only a proper viewpoint going into the landscape that he occupied as president, but also many jumping off points for research they can do on their own. It is also an interesting contrast to Michelle Obama's book, as it is much more show more focused on the people around him and the decisions made as president than on his personal life (although there are bits and pieces here and there, in addition to the opening chapter). One interesting theme that kept coming up: you get a sense of exactly which things could not be done, if he was to accomplish anything at all. Ie., the sense of checks on the presidency that are not built in by the system, but became implicit in the unique position he found himself in as president. show less