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Barack Obama calls the first part of his memoirs “a promised land.” Five things to know about the memory of the former president of the United States.
Almost 1000 pages: that is the space that Barack Obama gives to his career and his first term as president of the United States. The first part of his memoirs appears with “A promised land” (German: “A promised land”).
“It was as if my very presence in the White House had released a deep-seated panic. An idea that the natural order has been altered »- writes Obama with a view to his election as the first black president of the United States. It is just one of many accurate emotional statements.
What to Expect When Reading: Five Questions and Answers.
What does Barack Obama intend with his memoirs? Obama writes in the foreword that he is not looking for “just” historical records, but an honest account of his career and his presidency.
In “A Promised Land,” Barack Obama describes his career as a politician until the end of his first term in the White House.
Getty Images / Drew Angerer / Team
Barack Obama wants to give readers an impression of what it feels like to be president of the United States: “I wanted to pull the curtain back a bit and remind people that, despite all the power and pomp, the presidency is just a job is and our federal government is a human endeavor like many others and that the women and men who work in the White House experience the same daily mix of satisfaction, disappointment, friction in the office, failures and small triumphs as the rest of their fellow citizens “.
What overshadows the entire book: Obama’s unshakable belief that if he tells something in detail and illuminates it from all sides, everyone will understand why he ruled one way and not another.
Is it an attempt to polish your own image? No, this impression does not arise. It is striking that Barack Obama often uses words such as “however”, “but”, “maybe” and thus relativizes his own statements or shows the possibility of different points of view.
He also says self-critically that he often wonders today if he was too careful with words and deeds during his presidency.
What are you talking about? The book begins with a description of his journey from his apartment in the White House to the Oval Office. Then he takes a look back, talks about his personal career: “He was a listless student, a passionate basketball player with modest talent, and a tireless partier.” – from the ideals he developed in high school, through his social commitment, to his election to the White House and his first term.
This first volume, a second volume that follows, ends with the military action that led to the assassination of Osama bin Laden in May 2011.
How does Barack Obama write? To a large extent, the book reads like one of his speeches: precise, rigorous, differentiated, accessible and at times emotional. He fights for the truth and wants to describe everything as completely as possible. That is why this first volume is about 1000 pages long.
Sometimes this claim to integrity turns to a disadvantage. A detailed description of political constellations or a detailed presentation of the views of fellow politicians can be exhausting for readers.
But that is compensated by very personal passages in which Barack Obama tells what was going through his head in certain situations, as well as the lessons his mother had taught him that flowed into his decisions as president, or how he looked for a place in the White. House looked where he could quietly smoke a cigarette at night in peace.
Who do you write for? In the foreword to his book, Obama writes that it is aimed primarily at young people, “as an invitation to renew the world once again and, through work, determination, and a great deal of imagination, create an America that finally corresponds. to everything we are better at. “
