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Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance | 
 enlarge | Author: Barack Obama
Publisher: Crown
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $15.91
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Rating:  332 reviews
Sales Rank: 225
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 464
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.5
ISBN: 0307383415
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.04960730092
EAN: 9780307383419
ASIN: 0307383415
Publication Date: January 9, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 327 more reviews...
 Everyone should read this book November 30, 2008
Virginia A. Campbell (Pelham, Alabama USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
During the 2004 Democratic Convention Barack Obama burst onto the US national political scene with a speech that included this line: "I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible." Reading "Dreams from My Father" gives readers an important glimpse of part of that story.
This autobiography was originally published in 1995, shortly after Obama became the first black editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. Because it was written before he entered politics, we are given an unusually candid account of his youth and young manhood, which included drugs, personal doubts, and a search for his identity as a black man in America. It is the unusual candor of his writing that leads me to recommend it "Dreams From My Father" to readers of all colors and political persuasions.
In "The Audacity of Hope," which was published to support Obama's run for President, one gains an appreciation for his unique blend of idealism and pragmatism, but "Dreams From My Father" provides a glimpse into how he became the man who defied the odds to become the first Black President of the United States.
As a white American I gained a new appreciation of the inner struggles of Black Americans, but I also got the impression that because Obama was raised by his white mother and grandparents, he has the ability to see past issues of race. This ability is one that our nation sorely needs to move forward in tackling the problems that face people of all races and backgrounds..
Watching the crowds on election night I was struck by the joy and hope I saw on the faces of young people, both black and white. I think this book is the sort of book one should share with young people because it speaks to the search for identity that drives many young people. One does not get the sense one is reading the autobiography of a future president. Rather it could be any young man's story.
What about those who voted for McCain and who are afraid that Obama is some sort of left-wing radical? Instead of listening to Rush Limbaugh (and others) I would encourage them to read Obama's words for themselves.
Of course the story is incomplete since it was written while Obama was still at Harvard. We learn nothing of his career teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago, not to mention his subsequent political career. No doubt that story will be written, but it will be difficult to re-capture the spirit of openness that makes this book a one of a kind.
Masterfully written biography November 29, 2008
Donald Forman (Chapel Hill, NC UIsA)
Written in an intellilgent, clear style, Barak Obama lays out his life in a thoughful way. A most winsome and hopeful biography. Our future will be in the hands of a person who has dealt with adversity with verve, deep contemplation and patience.
He speaks and America listens with hope for the future as his dream unfolds.
 Obama is a Liar November 29, 2008
RaveReviewer
1 out of 16 found this review helpful
This book is a "spin" piece released well in advance of Obama's political career to lay the groundwork: the BS myth was already well in place when he decided to run.
Now we know the TRUTH: That he was born in Kenya, not Hawaii (two cases are now before the United States Supreme Court to decide his eligibility since he is not a natural-born citizen); he did not go to Harvard law school on "student loans" as he stated but rather his education was financed by a Saudi billionaire; geneaologists state that there is ZERO Cherokee in his bloodline; and on and on.
WHO is this man? WHAT is his real name, is it Barry Sotero? WHO is his daddy, was it really Malcolm X (the likeness is uncanny!)? These and other questions MUST be answered.
This man is a PHONY, a FRAUD, and a LIAR. If you fall for the BS in his book you are a moron.
Great book! November 28, 2008
Paula McCollum (Atlanta!)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is an excellent read and it allows the reader to gain a deeper understanding of President-Elect, Barack Obama. After reading this book, I gained a deeper understanding of him as a youth, a young man, a son and grandson. I also gained a greater understanding of his values, his beliefs and his purpose. It is a great book.
A True American Story November 27, 2008
K. Penn (Cambridge, MA United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This was a very enjoyable read. I could not put it down. Not often are top political figures this transparent and offer such a naked glimpse into their personal thoughts and experiences.
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