Name: A Promised Land
Rating: 4.366438356164384 (292 reviews)
ISBN: 9780525633761

Barack Obama

A Promised Land

Piet Terheyden

Cass Smith

Selena Yang

“A gentle snow had begun to fall, the flakes thick as flower petals, and as people recognized me and shook my hand, they all seemed to wear the same smile—as if we had done something surprising together”

“Maybe it was because in Hillary’s story I saw traces of what my mother and grandmother had gone through: all of them smart, ambitious women who had chafed under the constraints of their times, having to navigate male egos and social expectations. If Hillary had become guarded, perhaps overly scripted—who could blame her, given the attacks she’d been subjected to? ”

“Your problem,” he said, “is you keep trying to answer the question.”

“No, Barack,” Axe said, “that is not the point. The point is to get your message across. What are your values? What are your priorities? That’s what people care about. Look, half the time the moderator is just using the question to try to trip you up. Your job is to avoid the trap they’ve set. Take whatever question they give you, give ’em a quick line to make it seem like you answered it…and then talk about what you want to talk about.”

“Then again, a president wasn’t a lawyer or an accountant or a pilot, hired to carry out some narrow, specialized task. Mobilizing public opinion, shaping working coalitions—that was the job. Whether I liked it or not, people were moved by emotion, not facts. To elicit the best rather than the worst of those emotions, to buttress those better angels of our nature with reason and sound policy, to perform while still speaking the truth—that was the bar I needed to clear.”

A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making--from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post * Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times * NPR * The Guardian * Marie Claire In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency--a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil. Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation's highest office. Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune's Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden. A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective--the story of one man's bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of "hope and change," and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible. This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama's conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.

Edwin Lang

I recommend Barack Obama’s memoir and look forward to his second volume. What I found fascinating in reading The Promised Land though is that he seemed like a modern-day Don Quixote, in that like Cervantes’ knight-errant Obama pursued and maintained a dream of possibility for the United States of America amid a constant barrage of ridicule. He had not come into this as a seasoned politician, as say Joe Biden had, nor is he one today. He seemed on the other hand as someone who pursued a vision amid what a 2017 article in New Yorker termed the nihilism that had settled into the souls of many in the USA who wish for nothing more that to disparage, undermine and destroy almost everything once held as good and decent, leaving behind cruelty, fraud and corruption. And entering the fray Obama faced a very dangerous world, a complicated and failing economy and an increasingly divided and impoverished America with a simple hope to make this a better and more just world. In reading Pope Francis’ Laudato Si I came across a dedicatory prayer co-authored by Raymond Friel and David Wells (titled In Praise of Creation) which includes the line ‘to look after what has been entrusted to us from all eternity, to live more simply and not to aspire to a life-style that cannot be shared by all’. And in paragraph 54 of the encyclical (Section 7 on ‘Weak Responses’) Pope Francis notes that ‘It is remarkable how weak international political responses have been’. And Obama’s administration felt this firsthand in America’s desire to maintain cheap coal and as Obama mused, when faced with the DeepWater Horizon ultra-deep drilling leak that spewed 200 million gallons of oil into the ocean ‘(that we Americans) loved our cheap gas and big cars more that we cared for the environment’. What he and his administration could not resolve, both in terms of environmental policies or challenges to his agenda as a whole, was that ‘a big chunk of American voters had bought into the Republican idea that government was the problem and that business always knew better … (so) gut regulation, starve Agency budgets, denigrate civil servants and allow industrial polluters to do whatever the hell they wanted to do’. To the credit of his critics there is a sense that perhaps Obama had bitten off too much to chew, compounded by many American supporters who, rightly or wrongly, still expected too much from their government, and that Obama had bought into the mania. Gene Healy, in his book Cult of the Presidency, had decried the atmosphere that had allowed Obama to soar and who, initially filled with hubris, promised to overhaul the health care system, create millions of jobs, cure cancer and seek a world without nuclear weapons. When the Democrats lost 62 seats in the Congressional elections just 2 years after Obama’s election, he and his team felt it as a rebuff: the ‘perils of over-promising’ (Economist, July 25, 2009) amid an era of increasingly polarization. On the other hand, Obama had been elected on a throw-the-bums-out (out of Washington; even out of Wall Street) only to let corporations and the powerful become even more concentrated - perhaps then he had only been punished for having chosen for example an economic recovery plan that mostly benefited the educated well-off more than the middle-class and poor. ‘He didn’t try for a Rooseveltian homerun’. I had been one, alas, who wanted Barack Obama to make America great again because at heart he seemed an intelligent and honest person who likely would attract similar people into his realm, perhaps as Kennedy had done 40 years earlier. It was neat for example that Ted Sorensen, who worked with JFK, endorsed Obama in his run for the Presidency and saw similarities between the two men: both young; both faced a dangerous world; both challenged – Obama for his skin colour; Kennedy for his Catholicism. He took the reins just as many Americans seemed to be losing faith in the American Dream. It also seemed that, slowly but surely, Obama inadvertently gave people further reasons not to trust government. John Lock had defined trust as being the fundamental building block of the social contract … to encourage a passion for providing universal public service. So there was in effect, under Obama, no countering the what-is-in-it-for-me philosophy that the Republicans adhered to. I wish then that Obama has been braver (and perhaps more hubristic); wished he had faced down business during the financial disaster that greeted his inauguration; listened to some of his key advisors urging him to take bold steps to lessen the drift between the rich and poor, and to be seen as fair. Edwin

THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Times / Guardian / Telegraph / i News / The New York Times / Washington Post / NPR / Marie Claire A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making-from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency-a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil. Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation's highest office. Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune's Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden. A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective-the story of one man's bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of "hope and change," and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible. This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama's conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.

In every single page of this book, you can tell how much he loves America. He narrates the audiobook version, and it is a fantastic listen. He exudes intelligence, kindness, and care for all aspects of his life.

Kristen Aiuppa

This was a fascinating read or rather listen, thanks to Audible.

The high points of the book were when Obama let us into his mind palace while describing various incidents. Why he took certain decisions, how he feared about consequences. 

The book is long and a bit of editing would have certainly helped. He does apologize for it at the beginning of the book though.

For me, the best chapter was the last one where he describes operation killing Bin Laden through his point of view. The icing on this cake was that the book is narrated by Obama himself which adds a lot to the overall experience.

Adwait Kulkarni

This was a fascinating read or rather listen, thanks to Audible.

The high points of the book were when Obama let us into his mind palace while describing various incidents. Why he took certain decisions, how he feared about consequences. 
The book is long and a bit of editing would have certainly helped. He does apologize for it at the beginning of the book though.

For me, the best chapter was the last one where he describes operation killing Bin Laden through his point of view. The icing on this cake was that the book is narrated by Obama himself which adds a lot to the overall experience.

Eloquently written and almost conversational at times. A great time capsule looking through his early political life and first term. He created an almost nostalgic picture of the time through his encompassing writing of that period in American Life. I would love reading recs from that period in American History.

Eric Drake

Kaelan Chambers

Exceeded even the highest expectations.

"For I’m convinced that the pandemic we’re currently living through is both a manifestation of and a mere interruption in the relentless march toward an interconnected world, one in which peoples and cultures can’t help but collide. In that world—of global supply chains, instantaneous capital transfers, social media, transnational terrorist networks, climate change, mass migration, and ever-increasing complexity—we will learn to live together, cooperate with one another, and recognize the dignity of others, or we will perish."

Kaitlin Simpson

interesting but long

I always love hearing President Obama speak and I was very excited to read his book. I thought he gave a lot of interesting insight and information, it was really cool to hear everything from his perspective and learn more about what had actually happened during his first term. It’s very clear to me that Mr. President has some issues with brevity but other than that this is a great read. But if you don’t like long books I bet the audiobook is amazing too

Fascinating, educational, so articulate and just an amazing honest insight into Obama as a person, the presidential role and stories/context/reasons for some of his decisions. Loved it! 

Would really recommend this one on audiobook as hearing Obama explain it all added to it for me.

Francesca Palmer-Clarke

Fascinating, educational, so articulate and just an amazing honest insight into Obama as a person, the presidential role and stories/context/reasons for some of his decisions. Loved it! 

Would really recommend this one on audiobook as hearing Obama explain it all added to it for me.

Okay here’s the thing, it was a good book, it just wasn’t what I hoped it would be. I’ve read „Becoming“ from Michelle Obama several years ago and LOVED it. So I really wanted „A promised land“ to be kind of a .. „Becoming 2.0“ just from Barack’s pov - and sadly it was not. It was more focused on politics and every tiny decision he made during his first term than on him as a person and that disappointed me a bit. I wanted to understand how he became the president he was, which events shaped his personality and his beliefs, how he grew up, how being president influenced him. That’s why it started to drag a bit for me because we were stumbling from one political maneuver to the next.

Stephanie 

Francine Corry

Well, I have finally finished A Promised Land and I'm quite proud of myself. While Obama, is a great orator and good writer he never uses a few words when he can use thousands. 

I enjoyed the insight and inside view to recent history, but confess to a few things which I would have liked only a cursory glance.

When all is said and done, I'm glad that I took the time to pick it up and read it. It did remind me of how much I enjoyed Obama's time as our president and how hard it was to move to the next occupant.

Heiki Riesenkampf

Started the book a whole year ago. Took me a while to get through, but did enjoy the read. While the book is not as charismatic as some of his speeches are, it is a great recollection of Obama's first term in office. Sharing personal details in the middle of presidency stories makes the read much more relatable.

He did say it was a bit longer then intended. At times he provoked some thoughtful reactions while incorporating his upbringing and experiences to tie in.

Jazz

Joyce Gu

Ozge Kara

3.5 stars and I am only rating the writing of Obama not the politics, however these are of course intertwined in a political memoir. 

Obama is a good writer, no doubt. But this book was just so long. As Gary Younge wrote in his The Guardian review “If Nelson Mandela can write Long Walk to Freedom, which covers his whole eventful life over 617 pages, then Obama could surely have got through his campaign and the first three years of his administration in less.”

Reading Obama I again realise that I might find it easier to swallow liberal arguments on economy than to swallow American arguments on Middle East. I was not as angry on how he “saved” the financial crisis or how he was not able to change the healthcare system but I was very angry to see that while he devoted a chapter on how much he empathise with Israel and the Israeli cause, Palestinians only got a paragraph. So a black American with a weird name relates more to Israeli than Palestinians? Interesting. It was so hard for me to read his Middle Eastern policies, it took me months to finish the book. I wanted to yell liar at points. He doesn’t mention the drone strikes to weddings in Afghanistan, the mess that is Iraq, the mess they left in Libya, the fuck up in Egypt... At least he admits that the US will always support a known dictator to unknown democrats (also in Egypt and in Turkey).

I read two amazing reviews on this book that could tell anything I would like to tell more skilfully. 

The first one is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s review: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/12/bo...

Second one is The Guardian review by Gary Young: https://www.google.be/amp/s/amp.thegu...

Obama shares insights from his early life and political career through his first term with immense detail. He is thoughtful, pragmatic, and savvy in his decision making and political approach. Expressing genuine compassion for his fellow citizens and a deep understanding that at the core, we have more similarities than differences. His stories of world leaders and other politicians are revealing. Barack also dedicates significant time to his family, including Michelle and his two daughters, making him feel human despite the scale of his job. Long winded at times, but overall, a great way to get to know Barry at a more personal level and revisit some of the critical decisions and crises of his first term. The audio book was great -- it is narrated by President Obama himself. 

Philip Rosenbaum

Jackie Beauregard

Just loved this book ! I am a Canadian who 
Knows nothing about American politics!
Now I understand a bit more . Love the way he describes everything! Such a great man 
Politically wise and family wise

Ali Angco

"In the stirring highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in striking personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency--a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil"-- Flap of jacket.

Lynn

Having previously read Obama's first book 'Dreams from my father', I kind of knew what I was getting into. Yet, I can't believe I finished it (big book fear is real). First off, the audiobook was incredible (at 1.6x speed that is). Obama does a fantastic job of narrating all the weighted elements of his time serving the public (as Senator, President, human, you name it - he does it all). I was astounded by his commitment to retaining his humanity while serving as the highest official in the USA. The book is long, don't mistake me there, but the narrative flows and the extensive description of each of the issues that Obama tackled in office gives the reader a proper insight into the workings of US politics and policy. It was especially interesting to see his point of view on the government officials of European countries and his take on the international policy meetings. The only thing that prevents me from giving this 5 stars is the fact that the whopping 750 pages only covered his first term in office. Although he does give a fair warning at the beginning, I'd completely forgotten it by page 100 and hadn't expected it to be literally the half way point. I'll definitely be picking up the second volume when it releases.

Lord Aragorn

An excellent insight into Obama's run-up to the presidency and his first term. I listened to the audiobook, and it made it even more interesting to hear the content in his voice with his emphasis. So refreshing to hear about his pragmatic decision-making progress and his recognition that things in this world are nuanced. It was entertaining to read his assessments of various world leaders and politicians. 

I can't wait for the rest of his memoirs!

Keven Wang

I did not like Obama’s previous book that much. This is the best work he has done. I am super excited for the next volume. Involving sandy hook, reflection and Snowden

Juliana Matias

So I warn you that this review will have an extremely liberal internationalist bias, and I don’t want to create unnecessary drama, which politics will inevitably do sometimes. So feel free to skip this review if you don’t want to read about this. We’re all book lovers, let’s be civil 🙂

I’m not sure if I have mentioned this before, but most days I drive to work with a friend, and we always listen to an audiobook 🙂
And because this is a long book (almost 30 hours), and we had been working from home a couple of times a week, then she went on holiday, then I had a holiday, then the company we work for had a summer shutdown, it’s been slow going. A whole whopping 3 months to get through this book because the both of us needed to be in the car for us to listen to it.

But let me tell you, this was such a treat. I loved all aspects of this book.

Let me preface this review with a disclaimer that I was not born, nor have I ever lived in the US. I was born in Brazil, and have lived in Europe on and off again since I left university in 2006. I did my master’s degree in the US, but on a partially online scheme, which meant I was never there longer than 3-4 weeks at a time a couple times a year and only after Obama left office. Alas, the world is still largely US-centric, be it driven by Hollywood, or TV, or popular culture in general, so here I find myself wanting to read about their former president despite myself.

With that out of the way, let’s get on with this review. First of all, if you want to pick this up, I highly recommend the audio. Obama’s narration was like a soothing balm to me after a long day of work. I could just let go of the stress under his calm, steady cadence and thoughtful commentary.

Just for a quick summary, Obama talks about the circumstances that brought him into politics: the influence from his mother and grandparents, growing up in Hawaii, living in Indonesia, college, law school, starting out as a community leader, his time on the state senate, how the resurfacing of a speech he’d given years before propelled him into the spotlight and the senate, and finally the presidential campaign and his first 2 years as president.

Yes. This 30-hour book doesn’t have enough time to go past his decision to run for re-election. And that’s because Obama really reflects on all his actions, basically taking us with him step-by-step on his decision process and it’s fascinating.

Obama took office in the midst of the financial crisis in 2008/2009 and I had no idea how much he actually managed to get done within those first 2 years. He discusses in detail the approach they took on the financial crisis, healthcare reform, climate initiatives, foreign policy, retreating from Iraq, doubling down on Al Qaeda finishing up with the operation that killed Bin Laden.

While a lot of what he discussed and achieved are in my opinion very small steps towards giving his people access to things that should be universal human rights (i.e. free healthcare), you can see what victories they are when you consider the minefield that American politics are.

All is interspaced with a level of self-awareness I feel is lacking from politicians these days. He explains his thought-process, but also analyses his decision in hindsight, owning up to his mistakes, while clearly doing the best he could with the information he had available at the time. And he still manages to sound hopeful despite the unbelievable resistance faced by every single idea or improvement he proposed. I’m kind of looking forward for a second part of his memoir, where he discusses the last 6 years of his presidency, and the slow fall into this abyss of bigotry and nationalism that not only America, but large parts of the world fell into following those hopeful times covered in the first book.

All I can say is, in a world of so much disinformation these days, it was a breath of fresh air to get so much thoughtfulness and transparency.

Obada Mu

“But you don’t choose the time. The time chooses you. Either you seize what may turn out to be the only chance you have, or you decide you’re willing to live with the knowledge that the chance has passed you by.“ Barack Obama

Kuba Milcarz

It’s long. Too long. Actually it’s ridiculously long. Tho it was kind of fun to read it in the span of 2 months.

Jordan /

Julie Weber

Definitely recommend the audiobook as it is read by the former president. Ultimately I think this could have been shorter as it is a CHUNKY boy, and the pacing was not always consistent. I found myself getting bored at times, but I enjoyed the personal anecdotes and hearing about what the president was feeling when he made certain decisions.

A Promised Land

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