A Promised Land was a pleasant surprise to me. I had purchased this autobiography just as another book to read. Not politically astute, I have been interested in the surface politics that our journalists, debates and TV cameras show us. However, Barack Obama takes us past those glossy images and scripted sound bites. He shows himself as not only a politician but a solid and compassionate man. He doesn’t just describe people, he describes the scenes around them. His mother, his grandmother, and through his life the many people that surrounded him. As he rose in government circles from community organizer to senator to the presidency, the surround became closer and more restrictive. His job was to choose and to lead the many teams of staffers throughout his rise. From election campaigns all the way to the Oval Office.
Michelle Obama made certain he was still participated in their family life as much as possible in the White House and on extended trips, whether political or their limited personal vacations. Michelle’s mother Marion Lois Robinson, lived with them in the White House and provided Michelle with a steadying influence as they raised their girls, Malia and Sasha.
He describes his basketball games with close team members in down times that relieved the tension of the day; card games on Air Force One as they travelled the globe to or from International meetings; explicit management of the SEAl team that captured and killed Osama bin Ladin; dinners with global leaders and respecting but not bowing to the many cultures in attendance. At the same time, recognizing each man or woman as human being subject to his or her culture and experience. He is blunt about who Mitch McConnell is, or Vladimir Putin is, or any his detractors.
This blog post is a poor representation of A Promised Land by Barack Obama. Suffice it to say, that I will never listen to any news reports, debates or see TV representations again without recalling the depth of the politics of one man and his family. He does discuss racism, but it is not the premise of his book, nor is this a flag waving book. It is an honest book.
“The idea that our common humanity mattered more
than our differences was stitched into my DNA.”
~ Barack Obama, A Promised Land
Title: A Promised Land
Author: Barack Obama
Copyright: 2020
Publisher: Crown, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York
Type: Presidential Memoir
Format: Hardcover
ISBN - 978-1-5247-6316-9 (hardcover)
ISBN - 978-0-593-23904-9 (Deluxe Edition)
ISBN - 978-1-6347-3 (ebook)
Photograph credits appear on pages 707-712.
Book design by Elizabeth Rendffeisch
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