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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