Search query: barack obama

Product: Becoming
Description: An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WATCH THE EMMY-NOMINATED NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS
In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.

In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: The Scandalous Presidency of Barack Obama
Description: “I’m proud of the fact that [...] we’re probably the first administration in modern history that hasn’t had a major scandal in the White House.”

So President Barack Obama boldly declared before leaving office, and numerous times since. But is it true?

Not according to Matt Margolis, bestselling co-author of The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. Margolis lays out the details of literally dozens of Obama administration scandals that have been ignored, downplayed, or covered-up by the mainstream media. From “Fast and Furious,” to the illegal IRS targeting of conservative groups, to the recent NSA spying outrage, Margolis makes a powerful case that the Obama years represented nearly a decade of lawless and abusive governance.

While Obama and his allies attempt to spin the narrative that his presidency represented a time of pristine politics, it’s critically important that Americans understand the truth—Barack Obama brought to Washington corrupt Chicago-machine politics of cronyism and corporate payoffs, combined with audacious Alinskyite tactics aimed at dividing Americans and destroying his opponents.

Obama’s legacy will be discussed and debated for decades. But in the early months after he left office, more scandals have been uncovered—most notably an illegal scheme of using the NSA to spy on his political opponents and the frightening decision to block the prosecution of Iranian-backed terrorists. Far from being a virtuous New Camelot, the Obama administration abused its power like few others.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): E

Product: Obama: The Historic Presidency of Barack Obama - 2,920 Days
Description: A vibrant celebration of President Obama, this perfect commemorative book provides a valuable record of his historical presidency.
In January 2017, Barack Obama concluded two terms of his historic presidency. Through stunning images by White House photographers and beyond, as well as notable essays and quotes from a broad spectrum of people, Obama looks back at President Obama’s journey—from his remarkable victory to his final days in office and the significant milestones along the way.
Obama features rare and unseen photographs, along with iconic images and newspaper front pages from the president’s 2,920 days in office. It includes dramatic pictures, including the iconic shot from the situation room as the president and his staff watched the live unfolding of the bin Laden raid; day-to-day images of Obama in his roles as a world leader, policy maker, commander in chief, and father; lighthearted photos from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner; late-night television appearances; and moments with the entire Obama family.
Included are excerpts from seven historic speeches and contributions from notable historians, community leaders, journalists, academics and business leaders—including Sir Richard Branson, Laurie Garrett, Tweed Roosevelt, Anastasia Somoza and others whose lives have been touched by Obama’s actions and initiatives. Obama is truly a keepsake memento of a beloved president.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): E

Product: To Obama: With Love, Joy, Anger, and Hope
Description: “An insightful study of a president who listened to even his harshest critics with grace and humility.”—The Washington Post
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY GLAMOUR
Every evening for eight years, at his request, President Obama was given ten handpicked letters written by ordinary American citizens—the unfiltered voice of a nation—from his Office of Presidential Correspondence. He was the first president to interact daily with constituent mail and to archive it in its entirety. The letters affected not only the president and his policies but also the deeply committed people who were tasked with opening and reading the millions of pleas, rants, thank-yous, and apologies that landed in the White House mailroom.
In To Obama, Jeanne Marie Laskas interviews President Obama, the letter writers themselves, and the White House staff who sifted through the powerful, moving, and incredibly intimate narrative of America during the Obama years: There is Kelli, who saw her grandfathers finally marry—legally—after thirty-five years together; Bill, a lifelong Republican whose attitude toward immigration reform was transformed when he met a boy escaping MS-13 gang leaders in El Salvador; Heba, a Syrian refugee who wants to forget the day the tanks rolled into her village; Marjorie, who grappled with disturbing feelings of racial bias lurking within her during the George Zimmerman trial; and Vicki, whose family was torn apart by those who voted for Trump and those who did not.
They wrote to Obama out of gratitude and desperation, in their darkest times of need, in search of connection. They wrote with anger, fear, and respect. And together, this chorus of voices achieves a kind of beautiful harmony. To Obama is an intimate look at one man’s relationship to the American people, and at a time when empathy intersected with politics in the White House.
Praise for To Obama
“I cried several times.”—Pete Souza
“Beautifully researched and written . . . A moving and inevitably nostalgic or even elegiac read, redolent of the human grace and statesmanship of the Obama presidency.”—The Guardian
“These stories, when you read them all together, tell the American story. They’re inspirational, they’re frustrating, they’re angry, they’re grateful, they’re resilient.”—Valerie Jarrett
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): E

Product: Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama's Legacy
Description: Thanks to Donald Trump, the dangerous legacy of Barack Obama has been erased.

The Presidency of Barack Obama was characterized by radical policy shifts—the implementation of Obamacare (the first steps toward socialized medicine); unprecedented expansion of the big government regulatory state; the prioritization of pie-in-the-sky environmental concerns over jobs and economic growth; a foreign policy based on secret dealings, appeasement, and “leading from behind”; and a concerted effort to institutionalize political correctness in colleges, high schools, and even elementary schools across the nation.

But within the blink of an eye, nearly the entire Obama legacy has been undone before the end of Donald Trump’s first term in office. This remarkable book details the scope of the Trump upheaval, exploring the destructive path Obama set the nation toward, how Trump has begun to right the ship…and how much more still needs to be done.

Many of the Americans who voted for Donald Trump did so simply to oppose the Clinton machine and to block a continuation of the Obama era. They had little hope or expectation that Trump would make good on his promises to undo the entire Obama agenda. This book not only details how Trump made good on those promises and saved America from Obama's legacy, but also makes the case for why Trump deserves reelection in 2020.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America's Progressive Elite
Description: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

Washington insiders operate by a proven credo: When a Peter Schweizer book drops, duck and brace for impact.

For over a decade, the work of six-time New York Times bestselling investigative reporter Peter Schweizer has sent shockwaves through the political universe.

Clinton Cash revealed the Clintons’ international money flow, exposed global corruption, and sparked an FBI investigation. Secret Empires exposed bipartisan corruption and launched congressional investigations. And Throw Them All Out and Extortion prompted passage of the STOCK Act. Indeed, Schweizer’s “follow the money” bombshell revelations have been featured on the front pages of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, and regularly appear on national news programs, including 60 Minutes.

Now Schweizer and his team of seasoned investigators turn their focus to the nation’s top progressives—politicians who strive to acquire more government power to achieve their political ends.

Can they be trusted with more power?

In Profiles in Corruption, Schweizer offers a deep-dive investigation into the private finances, and secrets deals of some of America’s top political leaders. And, as usual, he doesn’t disappoint, with never-before-reported revelations that uncover corruption and abuse of power—all backed up by a mountain of corporate documents and legal filings from around the globe. Learn about how they are making sweetheart deals, generating side income, bending the law to their own benefits, using legislation to advance their own interests, and much more.

Profiles in Corruption contains tomorrow’s headlines.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): S

Product: Hugs from Obama: A Photographic Look Back at the Warmth and Wisdom of President Barack Obama
Description: A photographic celebration of Obama’s warmth and compassion
America needs a hug from Obama now more than ever, and this beautiful collection of photographs and quotations showcases President Obama’s wit, grace, wisdom, and warmth. As you pore over these pages, you'll be transported back to an era when leadership and dignity went hand in hand. Alongside touching images of our 44th president embracing his fellow citizens are some of his most inspirational and timely quotes, such as, “There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America – there’s the United States of America” and “We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): E

Product: Obama: An Intimate Portrait
Description: Relive the extraordinary Presidency of Barack Obama through White House photographer Pete Souza's behind-the-scenes images and stories in this #1 New York Times bestseller -- with a foreword from the President himself.
During Barack Obama's two terms, Pete Souza was with the President during more crucial moments than anyone else -- and he photographed them all. Souza captured nearly two million photographs of President Obama, in moments highly classified and disarmingly candid. Obama: An Intimate Portrait reproduces more than 300 of Souza's most iconic photographs with fine-art print quality in an oversize collectible format.
Together they document the most consequential hours of the Presidency -- including the historic image of President Obama and his advisors in the Situation Room during the bin Laden mission -- alongside unguarded moments with the President's family, his encounters with children, interactions with world leaders and cultural figures, and more.
Souza's photographs, with the behind-the-scenes captions and stories that accompany them, communicate the pace and power of our nation's highest office. They also reveal the spirit of the extraordinary man who became our President. We see President Obama lead our nation through monumental challenges, comfort us in calamity and loss, share in hard-won victories, and set a singular example to "be kind and be useful," as he would instruct his daughters.
This book puts you in the White House with President Obama, and is a treasured record of a landmark era in American history.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): E

Product: We Are the Change We Seek: The Speeches of Barack Obama
Description: A collection of Barack Obama's greatest speeches, now including his farewell address, selected and introduced by columnist E.J. Dionne and MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid.
"It is a political partisan's dream to see them [Obama's words] so finely gathered here." - Washington Post
We Are the Change We Seek is a collection of Barack Obama's 27 greatest addresses: beginning with his 2002 speech opposing the Iraq War and closing with his emotional farewell address in Chicago in January 2017. As president, Obama's words had the power to move the country, and often the world, as few presidents before him. Whether acting as Commander in Chief or Consoler in Chief, Obama adopted a unique rhetorical style that could simultaneously speak to the national mood and change the course of public events. Obama's eloquence, both written and spoken, propelled him to national prominence and ultimately made it possible for the son of a Kenyan man and a white woman from Kansas to become the first black president of the United States.
These speeches span Obama's career--from his time in state government through to the end of his tenure as president--and the issues most important to our time: war, inequality, race relations, gun violence and human rights. The book opens with an essay placing Obama's oratorical contributions within the flow of American history by E.J. Dionne Jr., columnist and author of Why The Right Went Wrong, and Joy Reid, the host of AM Joy on MSNBC and author of Fracture.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): E

Product: Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama
Description: New York Times Bestseller

Rising Star is the definitive account of Barack Obama's formative years that made him the man who became the forty-fourth president of the United States—from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Bearing the Cross

Barack Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention instantly catapulted him into the national spotlight and led to his election four years later as America's first African-American president. In this penetrating biography, David J. Garrow delivers an epic work about the life of Barack Obama, creating a rich tapestry of a life little understood, until now.

Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama captivatingly describes Barack Obama's tumultuous upbringing as a young black man attending an almost-all-white, elite private school in Honolulu while being raised almost exclusively by his white grandparents. After recounting Obama's college years in California and New York, Garrow charts Obama's time as a Chicago community organizer, working in some of the city's roughest neighborhoods; his years at the top of his Harvard Law School class; and his return to Chicago, where Obama honed his skills as a hard-knuckled politician, first in the state legislature and then as a candidate for the United States Senate.

Detailing a scintillating, behind-the-scenes account of Obama's 2004 speech, a moment that labeled him the Democratic Party's "rising star," Garrow also chronicles Obama's four years in the Senate, weighing his stands on various issues against positions he had taken years earlier, and recounts his thrilling run for the White House in 2008.

In Rising Star, David J. Garrow has created a vivid portrait that reveals not only the people and forces that shaped the future president but also the ways in which he used those influences to serve his larger aspirations. This is a gripping read about a young man born into uncommon family circumstances, whose faith in his own talents came face-to-face with fantastic ambitions and a desire to do good in the world. Most important, Rising Star is an extraordinary work of biography—tremendous in its research and storytelling, and brilliant in its analysis of the all-too-human struggles of one of the most fascinating politicians of our time.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): E

Product: The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama
Description: The New Updated Edition of an Amazon Bestseller! The Most Comprehensive Takedown of the Obama Presidency!

The presumption of Barack Obama's presidential greatness began before he even won the presidency. Now that he's out of office, presidential "experts" and historians are ranking Obama as one of our nation's greatest presidents, placing him amongst Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Truman.

Obama's presidency was certainly consequential, but it was by no means great.

Did Barack Obama really save America from another Great Depression? Did he really improve America's image around the world, or unite America? What about the new era of post-partisanship and government transparency? Did he really expand health coverage while lowering costs and cutting taxes? Did he make America safer and stronger than it was when he first took office? According to his supporters in the media, Hollywood, and academia, he did. But, they are wrong. And they are working aggressively to ensure their version of Obama's legacy is written into the history books.

What can you do about it?

Matt Margolis and Mark Noonan have compiled everything you need to know about the presidency of Barack Obama into a single source. First published in 2016, this book has now been updated to include the entirety of Obama's presidency, and the shocking details we've learned since.

The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama compiles 200 inconvenient truths about Obama's presidency--the facts that define his legacy: His real record on the economy; the disaster that is Obamacare; his shocking abuses of taxpayer dollars; his bitterly divisive style of governing; his shameless usurping of the Constitution; his many scandals and cover ups; his policy failures at home and abroad; the unprecedented expansion of government power... and more.

In his farewell address to supporters on January 11, 2017, Barack Obama declared, "by almost every measure, America is a better, stronger place than it was when we started." This book destroys that narrative with an avalanche of facts that simply cannot be ignored by supporters or experts before putting Obama's presidency into historical context. All of these facts are now at your fingertips in a single source. The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama is your ultimate guide to Obama's real record - the record he'd like history to forget.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): E

Product: Barack Obama: The Story
Description: The groundbreaking multigenerational biography, a richly textured account of President Obama and the forces that shaped him and sustain him, from Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter, political commentator, and acclaimed biographer David Maraniss.
In Barack Obama: The Story, David Maraniss has written a deeply reported generational biography teeming with fresh insights and revealing information, a masterly narrative drawn from hundreds of interviews, including with President Obama in the Oval Office, and a trove of letters, journals, diaries, and other documents.

The book unfolds in the small towns of Kansas and the remote villages of western Kenya, following the personal struggles of Obama’s white and black ancestors through the swirl of the twentieth century. It is a roots story on a global scale, a saga of constant movement, frustration and accomplishment, strong women and weak men, hopes lost and deferred, people leaving and being left. Disparate family threads converge in the climactic chapters as Obama reaches adulthood and travels from Honolulu to Los Angeles to New York to Chicago, trying to make sense of his past, establish his own identity, and prepare for his political future.

Barack Obama: The Story chronicles as never before the forces that shaped the first black president of the United States and explains why he thinks and acts as he does. Much like the author’s classic study of Bill Clinton, First in His Class, this promises to become a seminal book that will redefine a president.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): E

Product: Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters
Description: Barack Obama delivers a tender, beautiful letter to his daughters in this powerful picture book illustrated by award-winner Loren Long that's made to be treasured!

In this poignant letter to his daughters, Barack Obama has written a moving tribute to thirteen groundbreaking Americans and the ideals that have shaped our nation. From the artistry of Georgia O'Keeffe, to the courage of Jackie Robinson, to the patriotism of George Washington, Obama sees the traits of these heroes within his own children, and within all of America’s children.

Breathtaking, evocative illustrations by award-winning artist Loren Long at once capture the personalities and achievements of these great Americans and the innocence and promise of childhood.

This beautiful book celebrates the characteristics that unite all Americans, from our nation’s founders to generations to come. It is about the potential within each of us to pursue our dreams and forge our own paths. It is a treasure to cherish with your family forever.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): E

Product: Who Is Barack Obama? (Who Was?)
Description: As the world now knows, Barack Obama has made history as our first African-American president. With black-and-white illustrations throughout, this biography is perfect for primary graders looking for a longer, fuller life story than is found in the author's bestselling beginning reader Barack Obama: United States President.
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): E

Product: Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
Description: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS
In this iconic memoir of his early days, Barack Obama “guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race” (The Washington Post Book World).

“Quite extraordinary.”—Toni Morrison

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.

Praise for Dreams from My Father

“Beautifully crafted . . . moving and candid . . . This book belongs on the shelf beside works like James McBride’s The Color of Water and Gregory Howard Williams’s Life on the Color Line as a tale of living astride America’s racial categories.”—Scott Turow

“Provocative . . . Persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Obama’s writing is incisive yet forgiving. This is a book worth savoring.”—Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here

“One of the most powerful books of self-discovery I’ve ever read, all the more so for its illuminating insights into the problems not only of race, class, and color, but of culture and ethnicity. It is also beautifully written, skillfully layered, and paced like a good novel.”—Charlayne Hunter-Gault, author of In My Place

“Dreams from My Father is an exquisite, sensitive study of this wonderful young author’s journey into adulthood, his search for community and his place in it, his quest for an understanding of his roots, and his discovery of the poetry of human life. Perceptive and wise, this book will tell you something about yourself whether you are black or white.”—Marian Wright Edelman
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): E

Product: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
Description: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Barack Obama’s lucid vision of America’s place in the world and call for a new kind of politics that builds upon our shared understandings as Americans, based on his years in the Senate

“In our lowdown, dispiriting era, Obama’s talent for proposing humane, sensible solutions with uplifting, elegant prose does fill one with hope.”—Michael Kazin, The Washington Post

In July 2004, four years before his presidency, 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 Obama called “the audacity of hope.”
The Audacity of Hope is Barack Obama’s call 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 Barack 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 is a vigorous search for connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful political consensus.
Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, Obama 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.”
Relevance (ESCI, E=Exact S=Substitute C=Complement I=Irrelevant): E