The American Journey of Barack Obama
by The Editors of Life Magazine
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Book Summary Information
Author: The Editors of Life MagazineEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-10-07
ISBN: 0316045608
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Book Reviews of The American Journey of Barack Obama
Book Review: A Fairytale Come True
Summary: 5 Stars
The Barack Obama's documentary put together by the editors of TIME shows the reader the beginning roots his succeeding life, and the American journey of Barack Obama.
The contents of this 175-page hardcover book is as follows:
INTRODUCTION
FORWARD (By Senator Edward M. Kennedy)
THE FAMILY TREE
ROOTS
BOYHOOD
A YOUNG MAN ON THE RISE
CHICAGO
WASHINGTON
ASPECTS OF OBAMA
THE JOURNEY CONTINUES
The editors of TIME made this documentary more than interesting and inspiring by including photos that have never been publish before. The photo content is roughly 80% and includes many 8 ½ X 10's few are in Sepia Color, but most of them are in full color with few in black-and-white.
Excerpts from the documentary:
"After too many long years of division and divisiveness in our politics and our government, Americans hunger for change. I believe we've found at last a leader of remarkable vision and ability who can unite us to bring about that change, and his name is Barack Obama." (Senator Edward M. Kennedy, p. 18)
"In the history of the melting pot that is the United States, there have surely been more complicated lineages than this one that descends to Barack Obama Jr. and his children. But among our nation's leaders, few have so exotically personified the notion that an American can come from anywhere, from any background or combination of backgrounds. The Obama family tree is not a slender birch, easy to follow from trunk to uppermost branch. It is a gnarly and complicated plant, more akin to the volatile Whomping Willow of the Harry Potter saga." (p. 20)
"Nothing can be predicted for any of us, of course. But consider: Barack Hussein Obama Jr. was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961, to the son of a Kenyan farmer and the Kansas-born daughter of a furniture salesman. From that start in a state far from the mainland, he has risen to the heights of fame and achievement. There is much that, from today's vantage point, looks unlikely, in fact altogether remarkable, about this." (p. 24)
Life in Indonesia was certainly exotic, even thrillingly strange for young Obama---how could it not have been? ---but in those few years outside the U.S., Barack also would be exposed to a disturbingly raw humanity that existed in plain sight---floods and famine, suffering, poverty and even physical mutilation. Ultimately, Obama's mother [Stanley Ann Durham] would decide that this society did not offer the childhood---or the future---that she had in mind for her son. But for four of his formative years, Indonesia was home to Barack." (p. 38)
"In this next phase of his life, Barack Obama Jr. comes to understand what he is pretty good at, what he is very good at and, perhaps, what he is destined for. At the very least, he comes to the realization that he is destined for a meaningful life." (p. 50)
"Shortly before Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1991, Chicago attorney Judson Miner called the Law Review to offer him a job. The person who answered the phone---not Obama---told him, as Miner recounted to the Associated Press, `You can leave your name and take a number. You're No. 647.'" (p. 62)
"He [Barack Obama] took his seat in the Senate, but did he really sit down? Within a year he wasn't adamantly denying that he had his eyes on the White House, and within two it was evident he was running. Within three he was engaged in the most riveting primary battle ever. Within four years . . . the Oval Office?" (p. 101)
The editors of TIME in "The American Journey of Barack Obama" include a series of essays by 12 well know authors and, ". . . thinkers and writers to look at the many sides of Obama, and tell us what they see . . ." (p.148)
The essays are not only thought provoking, interesting but they, in a literal sense, peels the outer skins of an onion and get to the core letting the reader know the life of this magnificent and brilliant man named Barack Obama better.
I don't know what the different readers of this fine, interesting, and hard-to-put-down documentary will feel after reading it. For me, I felt I had read a Fairytale that at the end was not of chocolates, tin men, or trees full of Gummy Bears and Dots, but a true tale depicting real life; a body, heart, and soul. It was like a dream that was not a dream at all. It was like a work of fiction which was not fiction at all but true as life.
I thank the editors of TIME for "The American Journey of Barack Obama" documentary. I personally feel I know Barack Obama much better after reading the documentary.
Summary of The American Journey of Barack Obama
For decades Americans have turned to LIFE to see, understand, and remember the most important events and people of our time. Just as LIFE once opened up the glittering Kennedy White House, LIFE now focuses its lens on Barack Obama. The American Journey of Barack Obama covers the candidate from his childhood and adolescence to his time as editor of The Harvard Law Review and his Chicago activist years, culminating with the excitement and fervor of the historic 2008 Democratic National Convention. The unfolding drama of Obama's life and political career is cinematic in scope, and never has it been presented so compellingly. In addition to a powerful array of photographs that were taken by many of the country's greatest photographers (and some that were snapped, in the quiet moments, by Obama family members themselves), this book also includes a Foreword by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, an incisive narrative biography and original essays by some of our finest writers, including Gay Talese, Charles Johnson, Melissa Fay Greene, Andrei Codrescu, Fay Weldon, Richard Norton Smith, Bob Greene and several others. Many readers will find a new understanding of Obama. All readers will feel that they are bearing witness to a singular, undeniably American story.African-American & Black Books
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