Barack Obama
The Story
By David Maraniss; David Maraniss (Read by)
(Simon & Schuster Audio, Compact Disc, 9781442348325)
Publication Date: June 19, 2012
Other Editions of This Title: Hardcover, Paperback
Categories: United States - 20th Century, Presidents & Heads of State
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From the author of First In His Class, the definitive biography of Bill Clinton, and When Pride Still Mattered, the bestselling biography of Vince Lombardi, and They Marched Into Sunlight, the classic saga of the Vietnam era—a stunning new multigenerational biography of Barack Obama.
In a groundbreaking work based on hundreds of interviews, including with President Obama, and a trove of letters, journals, and other documents, one of our pre-eminent journalists presents a richly textured account of Barack Obama and the forces that shaped him.
This book begins in Kansas and Kenya, decades before Obama was born, and ends as he prepares for a political life. The reader gains a deeper insight into the first black president of the United States, revealing as never before the arc of his history, character, contradictions, and ambition. As with First In His Class, Maraniss's seminal book will redefine a president.
This seamless narrative moves through generations and around the world, evoking time and place so vividly that readers feel they are there. Maraniss explodes the myths as he explores the difficult and colorful lives of the president’s forebears and then follows young Barack from Hawaii to Indonesia to Los Angeles to New York to Chicago as he struggles with self-identity and searches for home.
David Maraniss, an associate editor at The Washington Post, is the author of critically acclaimed bestselling books on Bill Clinton, Vince Lombardi, Vietnam and the sixties, Roberto Clemente, and the 1960 Rome Olympics. He won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Clinton, was part of a Post team that won the 2007 Pulitzer for coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy, and has been a Pulitzer finalist three other times, including in the nonfiction history category for They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967. He lives in Washington, D.C., and Madison, Wisconsin.
Our list of this year's best biographies focuses on books about individuals who lived their lives off the beaten path. From the story of a spy turned chef to the story of the real Count of Monte Cristo, these books chronicle subjects who refused to conform to the expectations of others. More at NPR.org
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In Barack Obama: The Story, journalist David Maraniss chronicles the president's "classic search for home." Maraniss says Obama's young life was defined by his experience of being an outsider � a feeling that stayed with him well into early adulthood. More at NPR.org
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“This is a revelatory book . . . which will certainly shape our understanding of President Obama’s strengths, weaknesses and inscrutabilities. Every few pages Maraniss offers a factual nugget that changes or enlarges the prevailing lore.”
“[This] book is full of riveting stories, shrewd observations, and fascinating details.”
“Barack Obama is biography at its best. A prodigiously researched and exquisitely written multigenerational account…. With subtlety and sophistication, Maraniss captures and conveys Obama's sensibilities and sensitivities.”
“Remarkable . . . Maraniss captures Obama’s search for purpose and the kindling of his ambition with an intimacy unlike that of other biographers—including Obama….[The book] offers the rawest account of his early life and a deeper understanding of his origins. Three and a half years and countless publications after Obama’s Inauguration, that is a remarkable feat.”
“Barack Obama is a work of monumental ambition. …Maraniss’ exhaustive research and lucid writing expands exponentially our knowledge of the president’s history.”
“There's far more to this revealing and deeply reported coming-of-age story, a term usually applied to novels….[It] reads like a novel filled with stories too unlikely for fiction . . . which makes it the best kind of political biography.”
“Impeccably researched…. Stunning in its detail… Maraniss… gets out of the way and lets his first-rate reporting tell the story. . . . It is like watching a magician at work”
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