The Audacity of Hope: thoughts on reclaiming the American dream by
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 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 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. Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, he says, can Americans repair a broken political process, and restore to working order a government dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans.--From publisher description.
Dreams from My Father: a story of race and inheritance by
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father,a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man,has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey,first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father's life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.
Barack Obama in His Own Words by
Since delivering his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama has been hailed as the clear savior of not only the Democratic party, but of the integrity of American politics. Despite the fact that he burst onto the national scene seemingly overnight, his name recognition has grown by leaps and bounds ever since. Barack Obama in His Own Words, a book of quotes from the Illinois Senator, allows those who aren't as familiar with his politics to learn quickly where he stands on abortion, religion, AIDS, his critics, foreign policy, Iraq, the War on Terror, unemployment, gay marriage, and a host of other important issues facing America and the world.
Dangerous Doctrine : How Obama's Grand Strategy Weakened America by
Much like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, President Barack Obama came to office as a politician who emphasized conviction rather than consensus. During his 2008 presidential campaign, he pledged to transform the role of the United States abroad. His ambitious foreign policy goals included a global climate treaty, the peaceful withdrawal of American military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, and a new relationship with Iran. Throughout Obama's tenure, pundits and scholars have offered competing interpretations of his "grand strategy," while others have maintained that his policies were incoherent or, at best, ad hoc. In Dangerous Doctrine, political scientist Robert G. Kaufman argues that the forty-fourth president has indeed articulated a clear, consistent national security policy and has pursued it with remarkable fidelity. Yet Kaufman contends that President Obama has imprudently abandoned the muscular internationalism that has marked US foreign policy since the end of World War II. Drawing on international relations theory and American diplomatic history, Kaufman presents a robust critique of the Obama doctrine as he situates the president's use of power within the traditions of American strategic practice. Focusing on the pivotal regions of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, this provocative study demonstrates how current executive branch leadership threatens America's role as a superpower, weakening its ability to spread democracy and counter threats to geopolitical order in increasingly unstable times. Kaufman proposes a return to the grand strategy of moral democratic realism, as practiced by presidents such as Harry S. Truman, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush, with the hope of reestablishing the United States as the world's dominant power.
Double-Consciousness and the Rhetoric of Barack Obama : The Price and Promise of Citizenship by
Robert E. Terrill argues that, in order to invent a robust manner of addressing one another as citizens, Americans must learn to draw on the delicate indignities of racial exclusion that have stained citizenship since its inception. In Double-Consciousness and the Rhetoric of Barack Obama, Terrill demonstrates how President Barack Obama's public address models such a discourse.Terrill contends that Obama's most effective oratory invites his audiences to experience a form of "double-consciousness," which was famously described by W. E. B. Du Bois as a feeling of "two-ness" resulting from the African American experience of "always looking at one's self through the eyes of others." It is described as an effect of cruel alienation that can also bring a gift of "second-sight" in the form of perspectives on practices of citizenship not available to those in positions of privilege. When addressing fellow citizens, Obama is asking each to share in the "peculiar sensation" that Du Bois described. The racial history of U.S. citizenship is a resource for inventing contemporary ways of speaking about race.Joining with other work that suggests that double-consciousness may be a vital democratic attitude, Terrill extends those insights to consider it as a mode of address. Through close analyses of selected speeches from Obama's 2008 campaign and first presidential term, this book argues that Obama does not present double-consciousness merely as a point of view but rather as an idiom with which we might speak to one another. Of course, as Du Bois's work reminds us, double-consciousness results from imposition and encumbrance, so that Obama's oratory presents a mode of address that emphasizes the burdens of citizenship together with the benefits, the price as well as the promise.
A Long Time Coming: The Inspiring, Combative 2008 Campaign and the Historic Election of Barack Obama by
Based on in-depth reporting by a special team of Newsweek reporters and written by bestselling author Evan Thomas, A Long Time Coming tells the inside story of Barack Obama’s triumph over Senator John McCain to become the first African-American U.S. president. In juicy detail, it chronicles the long siege between Obama and Hillary Clinton, the wild ride of John McCain, and the explosive arrival of Sarah Palin. Finally, it shows how Obama overcame times of vexation and self-doubt to transform himself from the consummate outsider to the confident leader of an unstoppable political movement; one that brought hope and the possibility of redemption to the United States.
The Obama Doctrine: American Grand Strategy Today by
By mid-2015, the Obama presidency will be entering its final stages, and the race among the successors in both parties will be well underway. And while experts have already formed a provisional understanding of the Obama administration's foreign policy goals, the shape of the "Obama Doctrine" is finally coming into full view. It has been consistently cautious since Obama was inaugurated in 2009, but recent events in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the Far East have led an increasingly large number of foreign policy experts to conclude that caution has transformed into weakness.In The Obama Doctrine, Colin Dueck analyzes and explains what the Obama Doctrine in foreign policy actually is, and maps out the competing visions on offer from the Republican Party. Dueck, a leading scholar of US foreign policy, contends it is now becoming clear that Obama's policy of international retrenchment is in large part a function of his emphasis on achieving domestic policy goals. There have been some successes in the approach, but there have also been costs. For instance, much of the world no longer trusts the US to exert its will in international politics, and America's adversaries overseas have asserted themselves with increasing frequency. The Republican Party will target these perceived weaknesses in the 2016 presidential campaign and develop competing counter-doctrines in the process. Dueck explains that within the Republican Party, there are two basic impulses vying with each other: neo-isolationism and forceful internationalism. Dueck subdivides each impulse into the specific agenda of the various factions within the party: Tea Party nationalism, neoconservatism, conservative internationalism, and neo-isolationism. He favors a realistic but forceful US internationalism, and sees the willingness to disengage from the world by some elements of the party as dangerous. After dissecting the various strands, he articulates an agenda of forward-leaning American realism--that is, a policy in which the US engages with the world and is willing to use threats of force for realist ends.The Obama Doctrine not only provides a sharp appraisal of foreign policy in the Obama era; it lays out an alternative approach to marshaling American power that will help shape the foreign policy debate in the run-up to the 2016 elections.
Obama Presidency in the Constitutional Order: A First Look by
The Obama administration is shaping up to be one of the most consequential in recent American history. In this book, a diverse group of presidential scholars step back from the partisan debate to consider the first two years of the Obama presidency through the lens of the U.S. constitution's theory, structure, and powers. They ask how Barack Obama understands and exercises the President's formal constitutional and informal powers and responsibilities of the president, from foreign policy and public policy to his political leadership of the Democratic party and the nation as a whole. This timely first look at the Obama presidency establishes a constitutional yardstick of interest to scholars of the presidency, constitutional thought, and American political thought.
The Obama Presidency: Promise and Performance by
In this illuminating examination of the Obama presidency, the contributors describe the policy directions followed, and the administration’s level of success in achieving its objectives. Throughout the Obama administration, efforts were intended to alleviate the worst of the economic stress facing the nation, move the president closer to the center of the American political spectrum, and prepare for the upcoming reelection campaign, to be fought primarily on the same issues as the earlier one. The contributors present an analysis of the motivations and political thinking underlying the administration’s action along with assessments of the policy consequences of the issue agenda favored and the public’s reaction. The Obama Presidency is an in-depth account of one of the most intriguing and important presidencies at a time of economic crisis that goes a long way in explaining the policy decisions made and their political consequences, as well as the choices facing a nation in transition.
Unbearable Heaviness of Governing: The Obama Administration in Historical Perspective by
Taking a critical look at the realities that have shaped the first stage of Barack Obama's presidency, Morton Keller offers a history-focused examination of Obama's developing style of governing, with particular attention to his signature policies of the stimulus, financial, and health care reforms. The author considers this presidency in light of the facts of contemporary political life and the nature of key government institutions, such as Congress and the bureaucracy, and discusses what may lie ahead for the president's policies and political prospects.
Divided States of America by
Part one of an investigation into the deep political divisions and bitter polarization that grew during the Obama presidency. The film examines how President Obama's promise of change and unity collided with racial and political realities. Part two of an investigation into the deep divisions and bitter polarization that grew during the Obama presidency. The film examines racial tensions in America, the war for control of the GOP, and the growing dysfunction in Washington.