Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
NEW EDITION WITH EXPANDED TEXT: "His first line in the history books was written the day he won office as the first African-American president, but he was determined to offer more than simply a new complexion in the Oval Office."
So writes Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times, about the 44th president of the United States. In this vivid and in-depth account of Barak Obama's years in office, Baker chronicles a period of great hope, tumult, accomplishments, and, yes, failure. This is the story of a young president who took on the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression, forged a controversial health care program, watched anxiously in the Situation Room after approving the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden and endured mid-term election defeats. In a presidency buffeted by one crisis after another, he struggled with the Syrian civil war, a Russian invasion of its neighbor, the rise of the Islamic State, and, at home, often violent racial strife and recalcitrant Congress.
Inspiring in a crowded stadium yet difficult behind the scenes, Obama was a master politician who loathed politics. To many, he was an enigma, often seen through the lens of the observer--a liberal zealot to the right, an overeager compromiser to the left. "I am a Rorschach test," he once noted. But he was the dominant figure of his age. After eight eventful years, he would never be the same--and neither would be his country.
The original edition of Obama: The Call of History (2017) was the first full-fledged pictorial history of President Barak Obama's two terms in office to be published as he stepped down. Now comes an updated text-only version that expands the narrative account and adds new perspective from the privileged point of view of its author. Peter Baker reports on new details about the final months of the Obama presidency as Russia sought to intervene in American democracy and assesses the impact of Donald Trump's presidency on Obama's legacy. Including a lengthier text and forty photographs, this fully updated chronicle of Obama: The Call of History will be a much praised evergreen account of this consequential presidency.
Synopsis
NEW EDITION WITH EXPANDED TEXT The original edition of
Obama: The Call of History (2017) was the first full-fledged pictorial history of President Barak Obama's two terms in office to be published as he stepped down.
Now comes an updated version that expands the narrative account and adds new perspective from the privileged point of view of its author, Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times.
In this new edition, Peter Baker reports on new details about the final months of the Obama presidency as Russia sought to intervene in American democracy, and assesses the impact of Donald Trump's presidency on Barak Obama's legacy. Baker chronicles a period of great hope, tumult, accomplishments, and, yes, failure. This is the story of a young president who took on the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression, forged a controversial health care program, watched anxiously in the Situation Room after approving the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden and endured mid-term election defeats. In a presidency buffeted by one crisis after another, he struggled with the Syrian civil war, a Russian invasion of its neighbor, the rise of the Islamic State, and, at home, often violent racial strife and recalcitrant Congress.
"His first line in the history books was written the day he won office as the first African-American president, but he was determined to offer more than simply a new complexion in the Oval Office," so writes Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times, about the 44th president of the United States. Inspiring in a crowded stadium yet difficult behind the scenes, Obama was a master politician who loathed politics. To many, he was an enigma, often seen through the lens of the observer--a liberal zealot to the right, an overeager compromiser to the left. "I am a Rorschach test," he once noted. But he was the dominant figure of his age. After eight eventful years, he would never be the same--and neither would be his country.
Featuring lengthier text and forty photographs from The New York Times, this fully updated chronicle of Obama: The Call of History is an in-depth account of Barak Obama's years in office, as well as an examination of his legacy as it stands today.