As the first African American President Barack Obama has had an incredible impact on the world, serving as a beacon of hope and progress that has inspired so many. Following in the footsteps of his wife Michelle, Barack is now giving us a insight into his life through his upcoming memoir, A Promised Land, later this autumn.
In his own words, Barack Obama, our ‘forever President’, will give a deeply personal account of how he made the transformation from young man searching for his identity to becoming leader of the free world on the night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States. We already learned something of the lives of the Obamas through Michelle’s autobiography, Becoming, but this new memoir promises to go into greater detail about both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.
A Promised Land will be published in two volumes and the first is scheduled for global release on Tuesday, November 17, 2020.
“Along with being a fun and informative read, I hope more than anything that the book inspires young people across the country—and around the globe—to take up the baton, lift up their voices, and play their part in remaking the world for the better.”
Official blurb about the upcoming memoir reveals that Obama will be 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 will be 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.
President Obama said: “There’s no feeling like finishing a book, and I’m proud of this one. I’ve spent the last few years reflecting on my presidency, and in A Promised Land I’ve tried to provide an honest accounting of my presidential campaign and my time in office: the key events and people who shaped it; my take on what I got right and the mistakes I made; and the political, economic, and cultural forces that my team and I had to confront then—and that as a nation we are grappling with still.”
Photo Credit Pari Dukovic
“In the book, I’ve also tried to give readers a sense of the personal journey that Michelle and I went through during those years, with all the incredible highs and lows. And finally, at a time when America is going through such enormous upheaval, the book offers some of my broader thoughts on how we can heal the divisions in our country going forward and make our democracy work for everybody—a task that won’t depend on any single president, but on all of us as engaged citizens.”
“Along with being a fun and informative read, I hope more than anything that the book inspires young people across the country—and around the globe—to take up the baton, lift up their voices, and play their part in remaking the world for the better.”
Pre-order A Promised Land here.
