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Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
Vintage
July 2008
On Sale: July 15, 2008
464 pages
ISBN: 0307455874
EAN: 9780307455871
Paperback
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Non-Fiction
“A government that truly represents these Americans–that
truly serves these Americans–will require a different kind
of politics. That politics will need to reflect our lives
as they are actually lived. It won’t be pre-packaged, ready
to pull off the shelf. It will have to be constructed from
the best of our traditions and will have to account for the
darker aspects of our past. We will need to understand just
how we got to this place, this land of warring factions and
tribal hatreds. And we’ll need to remind ourselves, despite
all our differences, just how much we share: common hopes,
common dreams, a bond that will not break.”
–from The Audacity of Hope
In July 2004, 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 Senator Obama called “the audacity
of hope.” Now, in The Audacity of Hope, Senator Obama calls 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 Senator 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 about family, friends, members of
the Senate, even the president, is a vigorous search for
connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful
political consensus. A senator and a lawyer, a professor and a father, a
Christian and a skeptic, and above all a student of history
and human nature, Senator Obama has written a book of
transforming power. Only by returning to the principles
that gave birth to our Constitution, he 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.”
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