Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Obama (Barack Hussein Obama II) was born on August 4th, 1961 and is currently 64 years old. Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. Obama attended Columbia University where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and Harvard University where he received a Juris Doctor degree (magna cum laude).

Barack Obama is known for writing in the Non-Fiction genre.

Barack Obama is an American attorney and politician who served two terms as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He made history as the first African-American president in United States history. He served in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004 and was a member of the Democratic Party.

In 1995, Barack Obama published Dreams from My Father, a memoir that details his life from Chicago and Honolulu to the years when he started law school in 1988. Barack was born in Honolulu to Ann Dunham from Wichita, Kansas, and Barack Obama Sr. from Kenya. His parents met at the University of Hawaii but separated when he was 2 years old. His father earned a PhD in economics at Harvard and returned to Kenya to work for his country.

Obama created an image of his father from the stories his mother and grandparents told him. He only got the chance to see his father in 1971 when Obama Sr. visited Hawaii for only a month. His father later remarried but perished in a car accident in 1982 while in Kenya. After the divorce, Obama’s mother married an Indonesian man named Lolo Soetoro and moved to Jakarta. Obama moved back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents and later rejoined his mother to get a better education.

Obama attended Punahou School, where he was one of the six Black students. He explains how his grandparents were proud of him for attending such a prestigious school. It was there that he met a multiracial student named Ray, who later introduced him to the African-American community.

After completing high school, Obama relocated to Los Angeles, where he attended Occidental College. In college, he lived a party lifestyle where he indulged in alcohol and other drugs.

After two years, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in Political Science. After his graduation, he worked in business for a year and later moved to Chicago, where he took a job as a community organizer. He describes how tough it was for him as the program faced resistance from local leaders and indifference from the government.

It was during this time that Obama started attending Trinity United Church of Christ, which became a core part of his spiritual life. Before joining Harvard Law School, Obama took time to visit his relatives back in Kenya. Part of this experience in Kenya is shared in the last emotional section of the book.

Obama uses this memoir to offer a reflection on his personal experiences with race and race relations in the U.S.

Barack Obama: Awards & Accolades

Obama's books have won multiple awards, A Promised Land won the Nielsen Awards, Silver Bestseller, in 2021 as well as the Audie Award - Best Narration by the Author in 2022.

Barack Obama books have also been nominated for multiple awards, A Promised Land was nominated for the British Book Awards, Non-Fiction: Narrative Book of the Year, in 2021 as well as the British Book Awards - Audiobook of the Year in 2021, Audie Award - Audiobook of the Year in 2022.

Barack Obama: Lists & Other Mentions

• The Audacity of Hope: New York Times: #1 Nonfiction Best Seller in 2006 and 2007.
• A Promised Land:
  1. New York Times: #1 Nonfiction Best Seller in 2020 and 2021.
  2. New York Times: 100 Notable Books Selection in 2020.
• Dreams from My Father:
  1. Ex Libris: 100 Books to Read and Reread Selection in 2020.
  2. New York Times: The 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years Selection in 2019.

Related Authors

Fans of Barack Obama also enjoy these authors:

1. Michelle Obama, author of: Becoming.
2. Bill Clinton, author of: The President's Daughter.
3. Bill Bryson, author of the Bill Bryson Travel Books.
4. Anna Quindlen, author of: Black and Blue.
5. Anne Frank, author of: The Diary of A Young Girl / The Diary of Anne Frank.
6. Stephen Fry, author of the Mythos Series.
7. Stacey Abrams, author of the Avery Keene Series.
8. Susan Orlean, author of the Susan Orlean Library Science Books.
9. Hillary Rodham Clinton, author of: State of Terror.
10. Maya Angelou, author of the Maya Angelou's Autobiography Series.

Barack Obama: F.A.Q