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Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance Author: Barack Obama $17.13 |
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance |
Editorial Review:
Nine years before the Senate campaign that made him one of the most influential and compelling voices in American politics, Barack Obama published this lyrical, unsentimental, and powerfully affecting memoir, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller when it was reissued in 2004. Dreams from My Father tells the story of Obama's struggle to understand the forces that shaped him as the son of a black African father and white American mother--a struggle that takes him from the American heartland to the ancestral home of his great-aunt in the tiny African village of Alego.
Obama opens his story in New York, where he hears that his father--a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man--has died in a car accident. The news triggers a chain of memories as Barack retraces his family's unusual history: the migration of his mother's family from small-town Kansas to the Hawaiian islands; the love that develops between his mother and a promising young Kenyan student, a love nurtured by youthful innocence and the integrationist spirit of the early sixties; his father's departure from Hawaii when Barack was two, as the realities of race and power reassert themselves; and Barack's own awakening to the fears and doubts that exist not just between the larger black and white worlds but within himself.
Propelled by a desire to understand both the forces that shaped him and his father's legacy, Barack moves to Chicago to work as a community organizer. There, against the backdrop of tumultuous political and racial conflict, he works to turn back the mounting despair of the inner city. His story becomes one with those of the people he works with as he learns about the value of community, the necessity of healing old wounds, and the possibility of faith in the midst of adversity.
Barack's journey comes full circle in Kenya, where he finally meets the African side of his family and confronts the bitter truth of his father's life. Traveling through a country racked by brutal poverty and tribal conflict, but whose people are sustained by a spirit of endurance and hope, Barack discovers that he is inescapably bound to brothers and sisters living an ocean away--and that by embracing their common struggles he can finally reconcile his divided inheritance.
A searching meditation on the meaning of identity in America, Dreams from My Father might be the most revealing portrait we have of a major American leader--a man who is playing, and will play, an increasingly prominent role in healing a fractious and fragmented nation.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0 
Dreams from my Father: 
Surprisingly well written personal history...not always a page-turner, but Obama
gives real and honest insight about the very specific emotions of growing up
the way he did. As such, it really reveals the kind of man he is...and the point
view he's likely to bring to the presidency. An interesting, touching and
very instructive read.
Barack Obama:
This book is great.It gives insite into the life of Barack Obama. I bet no other president has EVER been so read about, or sold so many books, tapes and buttons. Barack Obama(Mr President) is a great man! His background contributes to his greatness.
WORTH THE READ!:
I finally finished Dreams From My Father last night. And while I confess I rarely leave reviews. I realized this morning how important these reviews are at helping me make decisions to buy a book or not... With that being said, I must whole-heartedly recommend this book. If you are at all interested in the nature and character of our 44th President - it is a must read!
I AM AN OBAMA FAN! I fully acknowledge that, but I think this book will even help the skeptics among us. By all indications we have...more info
A tale of hope:
I decided to read this book to find more about the man the world has enthusiatically endorsed as its new leader. That may seem funny to US citizens but in a survey in Australia over 70 percent of people said they supported Senator Obama . With all its power and influence the US calls the shots certainly it does in Australia . When reading the book I thought at time Obama was concentrating on the US Black / White issue as he said he might in the introduction. But thinking more I believe the book is more...more info
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