⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Promised Land by Obama
| Full Title | A Promised Land |
|---|---|
| Authors | Barack Obama |
| Year Published | 2020 |
| Date Read | January 27, 2021 |
| Rating | 5/5 stars |
At over 29 hours, I think this is the longest book I’ve ever listened to (even longer than the 21-hour The Grapes of Wrath!) I found the time spent to be well worth it. I’m sure this is partially because I’m an unabashed Obama fanboy, but a big part of why the book stayed interesting for me was that I read it less as a memoir and more as a history book focused on his time in office. I was not as informed on politics in Obama’s first term and so I appreciated the explanations of our positions in Iraq vs. Afghanistan or how exactly the Arab Spring was triggered. The author does a great job of setting up the background and then explaining why some actions that can seem outwardly nonsensical actually come from deliberations and negotiations of many competing interests; the decision not to criminally pursue executives from the financial sector comes to mind in particular. I guess I had a vague idea of this being a thing, but to see it with specific examples was
helpful.
One thing on the personal side that surprised me was Barack’s relationship with his wife. Running for president is obviously a difficult and stressful endeavor, and in my conception would work best if you had a supportive partner. The book shows that actually, Michelle was opposed to the idea from the beginning and in general it felt to me as though the author had to continually be working himself, alone, on why it made sense to run. I guess this is just a very different model from what I traditionally think of as a preferred relationship interaction; maybe I’m mishearing, but it didn’t really feel like the Obamas were “on the same team” much of the time.
One other thing to mention is the frustration Obama writes about in regards to his interactions with Republicans. Many of the passages here come off as dismissive of the whole category of Senators, and pretty defensive when addressing complaints from right-leaning media. As someone who feels that our
left-right divide has gotten unnecessarily extreme, I get frustrated with cynical takes like this and hope (perhaps in vain) that we’re all just Americans and we should be able to work together. This is something new for me because one reason I’ve respected Obama so much is his ability to stay out of name-calling like “basket of deplorables.” It makes me question that if even this guy doesn’t think that there’s a cooperative way forward, maybe my hope really is just too idealistic.
Overall I’d recommend this to anyone that is interested in getting a behind-the-scenes look at Obama’s first term, especially if a a bit of a recent history lesson sounds appealing.