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The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream | 
 enlarge | Author: Barack Obama
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  493 reviews
Sales Rank: 68
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0307237702
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.04960730092
EAN: 9780307237705
ASIN: 0307237702
Publication Date: November 6, 2007
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Amazon.com
Barack Obama's first book, Dreams from My Father, was a compelling and moving memoir focusing on personal issues of race, identity, and community. With his second book The Audacity of Hope, Obama engages themes raised in his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, shares personal views on faith and values and offers a vision of the future that involves repairing a "political process that is broken" and restoring a government that has fallen out of touch with the people. We had the opportunity to ask Senator Obama a few questions about writing, reading, and politics--see his responses below. --Daphne Durham
20 Second Interview: A Few Words with Barack Obama
 Q: How did writing a book that you knew would be read so closely by so many compare to writing your first book, when few people knew who you were?
A: In many ways, Dreams from My Father was harder to write. At that point, I wasn't even sure that I could write a book. And writing the first book really was a process of self-discovery, since it touched on my family and my childhood in a much more intimate way. On the other hand, writing The Audacity of Hope paralleled the work that I do every day--trying to give shape to all the issues that we face as a country, and providing my own personal stamp on them.
Q: What is your writing process like? You have such a busy schedule, how did you find time to write?
A: I'm a night owl, so I usually wrote at night after my Senate day was over, and after my family was asleep--from 9:30 p.m. or so until 1 a.m. I would work off an outline--certain themes or stories that I wanted to tell--and get them down in longhand on a yellow pad. Then I'd edit while typing in what I'd written.
Q: If readers are to come away from The Audacity of Hope with one action item (a New Year's Resolution for 2007, perhaps?), what should it be?
A: Get involved in an issue that you're passionate about. It almost doesn't matter what it is--improving the school system, developing strategies to wean ourselves off foreign oil, expanding health care for kids. We give too much of our power away, to the professional politicians, to the lobbyists, to cynicism. And our democracy suffers as a result.
Q: You're known for being able to work with people across ideological lines. Is that possible in today's polarized Washington?
A: It is possible. There are a lot of well-meaning people in both political parties. Unfortunately, the political culture tends to emphasize conflict, the media emphasizes conflict, and the structure of our campaigns rewards the negative. I write about these obstacles in chapter 4 of my book, "Politics." When you focus on solving problems instead of scoring political points, and emphasize common sense over ideology, you'd be surprised what can be accomplished. It also helps if you're willing to give other people credit--something politicians have a hard time doing sometimes.
Q: How do you make people passionate about moderate and complex ideas?
A: I think the country recognizes that the challenges we face aren't amenable to sound-bite solutions. People are looking for serious solutions to complex problems. I don't think we need more moderation per se--I think we should be bolder in promoting universal health care, or dealing with global warming. We just need to understand that actually solving these problems won't be easy, and that whatever solutions we come up with will require consensus among groups with divergent interests. That means everybody has to listen, and everybody has to give a little. That's not easy to do.
Q: What has surprised you most about the way Washington works?
A: How little serious debate and deliberation takes place on the floor of the House or the Senate.
Q: You talk about how we have a personal responsibility to educate our children. What small thing can the average parent (or person) do to help improve the educational system in America? What small thing can make a big impact?
A: Nothing has a bigger impact than reading to children early in life. Obviously we all have a personal obligation to turn off the TV and read to our own children; but beyond that, participating in a literacy program, working with parents who themselves may have difficulty reading, helping their children with their literacy skills, can make a huge difference in a child's life.
Q: Do you ever find time to read? What kinds of books do you try to make time for? What is on your nightstand now?
A: Unfortunately, I had very little time to read while I was writing. I'm trying to make up for lost time now. My tastes are pretty eclectic. I just finished Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, a wonderful book. The language just shimmers. I've started Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, which is a great study of Lincoln as a political strategist. I read just about anything by Toni Morrison, E.L. Doctorow, or Philip Roth. And I've got a soft spot for John le Carre.
Q: What inspires you? How do you stay motivated?
A: I'm inspired by the people I meet in my travels--hearing their stories, seeing the hardships they overcome, their fundamental optimism and decency. I'm inspired by the love people have for their children. And I'm inspired by my own children, how full they make my heart. They make me want to work to make the world a little bit better. And they make me want to be a better man.
Product Description
“A government that truly represents these Americans–that truly serves these Americans–will require a different kind of politics. That politics will need to reflect our lives as they are actually lived. It won’t be pre-packaged, ready to pull off the shelf. It will have to be constructed from the best of our traditions and will have to account for the darker aspects of our past. We will need to understand just how we got to this place, this land of warring factions and tribal hatreds. And we’ll need to remind ourselves, despite all our differences, just how much we share: common hopes, common dreams, a bond that will not break.”
–from The Audacity of Hope
In July 2004, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. One phrase in particular anchored itself in listeners’ minds, a reminder that for all the discord and struggle to be found in our history as a nation, we have always been guided by a dogged optimism in the future, or what Senator Obama called “the audacity of hope.”
Now, in The Audacity of Hope, Senator Obama calls for a different brand of politics–a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the “endless clash of armies” we see in congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of “our improbable experiment in democracy.” He explores those forces–from the fear of losing to the perpetual need to raise money to the power of the media–that can stifle even the best-intentioned politician. He also writes, with surprising intimacy and self-deprecating humor, about settling in as a senator, seeking to balance the demands of public service and family life, and his own deepening religious commitment.
At the heart of this book is Senator Obama’s vision of how we can move beyond our divisions to tackle concrete problems. He examines the growing economic insecurity of American families, the racial and religious tensions within the body politic, and the transnational threats–from terrorism to pandemic–that gather beyond our shores. And he grapples with the role that faith plays in a democracy–where it is vital and where it must never intrude. Underlying his stories about family, friends, members of the Senate, even the president, is a vigorous search for connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful political consensus.
A senator and a lawyer, a professor and a father, a Christian and a skeptic, and above all a student of history and human nature, Senator Obama has written a book of transforming power. Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, he says, can Americans repair a political process that is broken, and restore to working order a government that has fallen dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans. Those Americans are out there, he writes–“waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them.”
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 488 more reviews...
A good man with a simple message (maybe too simple) May 2, 2008
First, I must mention that I am not really in non-fiction kind of guy. Despite my reading habits I have always been fascinated by this "rock-star" politician who began shaking everything up year or two ago. I figured if I was going to read a politically-based book, this one would be the place to start.
Regardless of my party affiliation I truly believe that Mr. Obama is a good man with a simple message - even with all of this Jeremiah Wright brew-ha-ha going on. His book: Audacity of Hope provides us a glimpse of what direction Barack would like to see the country move in. He gets high praise from me (and obviously many others) for his vision of the future. He intertwines stories from his personal life that makes us believe that he is a very humble man who has worked hard for what he has, is thankful for all he has achieved and does not take his family or success for granted.
However, just like his speeches he writes in generalities. His writing provides historical fact, analysis and general ideas about the shape our government should take. What's missing all-around is how he plans on getting there. Maybe a book isn't the place to do that since the sociological environment and political landscape changes on a daily basis? Writing a book in which the plans are too specific would not stand the test of time? We'll see.
What I probably enjoyed most of all is learning about Barack, the man -- the son, grandson, husband, and father. I think that regardless of what happens in Election '08 we'll be hearing much more from Sen. Obama and seeing more in print in the future.
 Go Barack! May 2, 2008
I enjoyed reading this, because it taught me much about the inner workings of Washington and it was a declaration to hope for a new United States. We have to believe that this man can win the Presidential race. He has a well-rounded view of different cultures and is extremely intelligent, which would be an excellent start in finally uniting the United States of America. That's my opinion and it was strengthened by reading this book.
 a simple man April 30, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I listened to the audio book.
His narration is entertaining. The content of the book is meloncholy and full of flurishing. There is no real meat here. This is the story of a man whos father left him, he is taken to Indonesia, and his youth is
cluttered with no clear heritage or culture.
His mother seems to have jungle fever, and Barak indicates this in his comments.
This man is simply a man distracted with the task of trying to establish
his value through his heritage.
My oppinion is he should just blaze his own trail and forget about
trying to be someone else.
Well written April 30, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I believe that this is one of the easier books to read, but harder to review. It is well organized and supports its theme, which is the clearly stated in its title. Because he has become such a public figure you may think you know a little about him and what his beliefs are. In my case I was expecting a real liberal message, but was very surprised how conservative I found some of his opinions. If your counting on the 60 second sound bites on the evening news to inform you of public figures you will continue to be under informed. After reading his thoughts and beliefs I see why his message is so charismatic; it truly resounds of the "American Dream." Even though the book shares more knowledge of his rise to prominence on the American political stage, it doesn't provide a lot of details. This is OK to me because even though I would like more background on his life, as an author he really sticks to his theme, which is the title of this book.
"We have a stake in one another" April 29, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
In 2006 Barack Obama reflected in print about contemporary America. He issued THE AUDACITY OF HOPE: THOUGHTS ON RECLAIMING THE AMERICAN DREAM.
For every person who reads this well crafted book from cover to cover there may be hundreds who do no more than dip into at random or scan the table of contents for one or two chapters to select. It is for the many not the few that I offer this little review.
There are four portions that are musts for any reader:
-- (1) The book's DEDICATION:
--To "MY MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER, TUTU,
who's been a rock of stability throughout my life,
and
MY MOTHER,
whose loving spirit sustains me still."
-- (2) The PROLOGUE.
-- (3) CHAPTER THREE: Our Constitution
-- (4) CHAPTER SIX: Faith.
If these four segments do not attract you, I suspect that you will not go on to the other seven chapters on Republicans and Democrats, Values, Politics, Opportunity, Race, The World Beyond Our Borders, Family and the volume's Epilogue and Acknowledgments.
-- (1) The DEDICATION. In the spring of 2008 Senator and Presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama is 46 years old. In 1995's DREAMS FROM MY FATHER, 34-year old "Barry" (so named through high school by everyone or shortened to "Bar" by his Kansan grandfather), Obama highlighted his life from birth in Hawaii in 1961 to his first visit at age 25 to Kenya, birthplace of his by then deceased father. His American ancestry was 100% white and the three persons who nurtured him longest and knew him best were his mother and her parents. Readers of DREAMS FROM MY FATHER are left in no doubt of his affectionate indebtedness to those "big three" Americans who brought him up.
-- (2) The PROLOGUE. Here Barack Obama lays out what THE AUDACITY OF HOPE will provide a reader. Some background: in October 1992, aged 31, Obama married fellow Chicago lawyer Michelle Robinson. They now have two young daughters, Malia Ann and Natasha. In 1995 Obama made his first successful run for the Illinois Senate. He was re-elected in 1998 and 2002. In November 2004 he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
We learn in the PROLOGUE that THE AUDACITY OF HOPE flows directly from his U.S. Senate race: the recurring bread and butter concerns he heard expressed over and over as he campaigned across Illinois (p.8). Obama says that he runs for elective office to honor a specific tradition in American politics, one "based on the simple idea that we have a stake in one another, and that what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart" (2).
Obama, was not yet a Presidential candidate when this, his second book, was being written. He asserts: "we need a new kind of politics, one that can excavate and build upon those shared understandings that pull us together as Americans"(9). The remainder of this well written book invites readers to join Senator Obama in a kind of archeological dig, an "excavation" into the history of America's values. Some values, some unifying forces are dimmed, buried, all but forgotten. The junior senator from Illinois invites readers to rediscover those values with him and to apply them to today's needs.
-- (3) CHAPTER THREE: Our Constitution. "For ten years before coming to Washington, I taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago" (84). Obama faced students who thought they knew the Constitution without having read it. Despite whatever ways thoughtful Americans differently interpret that venerable document, all share a sense of the fundamental personal rights enshrined in it (86). How can Americans hold together in practice a government proclaiming almost anarchic personal liberty? How can we cling in practice to our constitution when some legislature or some court makes a law or a decision with whose outcome we passionately disagree? (88).
The Senator empathizes with Justice Scalia's opinion that the original understanding of the founders must be followed. But in the end he comes down behind Justice Breyer: the constitution "is not a static, but rather a living document and must be read in the context of an ever-changing world" (90). Our democracy, metaphorically, is not a house to be built, but a conversation to be had (92). The Constitution gives us a "road map by which we marry passion to reason, the ideal of individual freedom to the demands of community" (95). A good part of this chapter goes to details of Senate practice and especially its not yet forgotten partisan debate over filibustering.
-- (4) CHAPTER SIX: Faith. Here are some excerpts and parphrases. "I was not raised in a religious household" (202). His mother regaled young Obama with tales of hypocritical preachers and self-righteous church women met in her growing up years in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas (203). But she also provided through books on family book shelves a working knowledge of world religions. To her, "Religion was an expression of human culture, not its well-spring (204). In Chicago as a community organizer, Obama realized that he needed to belong to a community of faith (206). He chose the African American religious tradition, with its power "to spur social change" (207). "Out of necessity, the black church had to minister to the whole person." For American blacks salvation had to be both individual and collective. "I was able to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death" (208).
In politics liberals and Democrats must not abandon God and religion to the far right (214). They must find ways to pitch policy arguments in language powerful for both religious and non-religious Americans (216). It took Baptists and evangelicals to mobilize earliest pre-ratification support for the Bill of Rights (217). Religion must not be driven from the public forum. But our democracy demands "that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals must be subject to argument and amenable to reason (219).
The other chapters of THE AUDACITY contain passages as good, but none better. If these snippets do not make you want to read more, nothing will. -OOO-
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