Philippe diaz biography of barack obama
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Its focus, somewhat to my surprise, is as much on Obama’s forebears as Obama himself. As a reference on his pre-presidency this book is, in some ways, commendable. Unfortunately, the degree of satisfaction a reader achieves by patiently navigating its ten chapters is inadequate compensation for the persistently tedious experience.
Garrow makes no discernible effort to separate mundane details from consequential facts and there are few, if any, overarching themes or theses.
After winning reelection in 2012, Obama began his second term focused on securing legislation on immigration reform and gun control, neither of which he was able to achieve. But Remnick’s reporting eye and his tenacity in seeking out interviews of everyone who ever knew Obama are remarkable. Unpredictability is built into the structure and the story line which makes this novel fascinating and difficult to put down.
My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies
Barack Obama undoubtedly possesses one of the most complicated – and fascinating – backgrounds of any former president of the United States.
Born to a father he hardly knew and to a mother he almost never saw, Obama’s path to the White House is one of the most remarkable and unlikely of any I’ve seen.
And, of the three books I read, this provides the most informative “all around” coverage of Obama’s pre-presidency – 4¼ stars (Full review here)
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* “Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama” (2017) by David Garrow
This 1,078-page biography, covering Obama’s life up through his presidency, is noteworthy for its length as well as the deep research which supports an often extraordinary level of detail.
After winning a closely fought contest against New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination, Obama handily defeated Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee for president, in the general election.
When President Obama took office, he faced very significant challenges.
In foreign affairs, the United States still had troops deployed in difficult conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
During the first two years of his first term, President Obama was able to work with the Democratic-controlled Congress to improve the economy, pass health-care reform legislation, and withdraw most US troops from Iraq.
The story line is largely one of the characters’ inner lives and the human costs of wealth. By definition, trust is both a moral quality and a financial arrangement. And in stark contrast to the first 1000+ pages of the book, Obama’s presidency is covered in less than thirty pages. The economy was officially in a recession, and the outgoing administration of George W.
Bush had begun to implement a controversial "bail-out" package to try to help struggling financial institutions. But as a presidential biography it proves a mind-numbing exercise in patience and pointless perseverance – 2 stars (Full review here)
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* “Barack Obama: The Story” (2012) by David Maraniss
I had a great experience with Maraniss’s biography of the young Bill Clinton and this book on Barack Obama’s early life did not disappoint.
The narrator?
Starting off in the New York of the roaring twenties, this novel is intricate, cunning, and surprising. To wrap up this six-year journey through the best biographies of the presidents I read three books on Barack H. Obama:
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* “The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama” (2010) by David Remnick
Remnick’s “The Bridge” was the perfect place for me to start: it covers Obama’s life up through his presidential inauguration and although the narrative can be dense and dry, it is not tediously detailed and provides an excellent review of most aspects of his first forty-seven years.
But this book is not as engrossing as are the very best biographies and it underplays the drama embedded in Obama’s unlikely and remarkable political ascent.
Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago, where he met and married Michelle LaVaughn Robinson in 1992. In foreign policy, Obama concentrated during the second term on the Middle East and climate change.
Obama left the presidency, at age fifty-five, after his constitutionally limited two terms ended on January 20, 2017.
Money causes dissonance in the story line, due to the conflict between money as a taboo and also as a force that shapes lives. Their two daughters, Malia Ann and Natasha (Sasha), were born in 1998 and 2001, respectively. Different narrators and styles are purposefully put together to create the whole of this book, with the arc of the story line progressing through time and writing styles.