The election of Barack Obama as President of the United States was a defining moment in American history. After years of failed policies, Barack Obama was given the chance to reclaim the American dream. He proved himself to be a new kind of leader – one who could bring people together, be honest about the challenges we all face and move his nation forward. Change We Can Believe In outlines his vision for America and its standing in the world.
“Obama radiates an ethos of integrity, humanity, good manners and elegance”
new York Times
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“The best kind of storyteller”
observer
“Like Bill Clinton, he has the knack of weaving together the personal and the anecdotal with the political and the conceptual, so that each point seems both persuasive and commonsensical”
guardian
“”Yes we can” is the best political statement of the century so far”
the Times
“Speaking in public seems to be both a personal need and a political creed for Obama. He is not just a fine orator: he is consciously putting oratory at the centre of his political being – and in doing so seeks to embed himself in a vital American tradition”
financial Times
Barack Obama was born in Honolulu in 1961. In his early twenties he found his vocation working among poor communities on the south side of Chicago. Later he went to law school at Harvard University, where he became the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review. In 1995 he published his memoir Dreams From My Father, which became a bestseller soon after it was reissued in 2004. After returning to Chicago, he was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996.
Barack Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and later that year he was elected to the US Senate. His second book, The Audacity of Hope, was published in 2006 and became an immediate bestseller. In November 2008 Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States of America, following which he published the bestselling Change We Can Believe In. He was re-elected in 2012 and served a second term which concluded in 2016. His next book, A Promised Land, is released in November 2020. He is married to Michelle, with whom he has two daughters, Sasha and Malia.