Edinburgh, Scotland: Canongate Books, 2007
Summary
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream is a book that can be categorized as an autobiography of the first African American president in the history of the United States. This book that was written and released shortly before announcing his presidential bid, the then Illinois senator’s second book addresses a collection of topics, which was considered by several political analysts as a means of paving way for himself in the looming presidential campaigns of that time. In this book, the author gives a detailed account of his journey through politics: he explains the driving forces behind his senatorial bid as well as his failed run for the congress. He proceeds to explain how things were for him after he took office in the United States senate, which at that time, he considered a dream come true, but still believed that he could achieve even more. He does not fail to mention about his humble background amidst big ambitions.
This book, which is organized in a chronological manner, does not only indicate the president’s political journey to the point where he had reached at that time, but also details his aspirations for America. He believes that his plans for America have the potential of driving the country to the right direction. Such plans as detailed in this account include the national education and healthcare, a bi-partism relationship between the Democrats and Republicans in the United States, and reconstructing the economy of the United States, which have all continued to form part of his current policy methods. Concisely, this book gives the background of the “senator”, his meetings with his constituents, his political interactions around Illinois, his view of the state of affairs in America, and his plans to change the status quo. Even though Bill Clinton also narrated his political life and autobiography in his account titled “My Life”, Obama’s publication has been an influential read and served its purpose. David Plouffe later wrote “The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barrack Obama's Historic Victory” to advance the ideas presented in the president’s publication.
Description of the Problem
After studying the United States politics for some time and determining the possible causes of the political unrest in the states, the then-senator realized that the major problem is the relationships between the Republicans and Democrats. He believes that most of the people in America are divided along party lines. Obama sound hopeful in the book, but also realistic in his optimistic assertion about America. He accepts the fact that there are deemed to be political differences between the two political parties, but also admits that they cannot disagree on virtually everything. Obama also confirms that according to his observation of the current political atmosphere in Washington, the congressional representatives at times overlooked their political divides when debating matters of public interest. However, he maintains that the current lawmakers offer more loyalty to their political parties than the public interest. Obama also delineates other factors such as international relations, faith and race as some of the possibilities that have hindered America from attaining its full potential. He considers himself an example of the racially marginalized populations in America, where the one-drop rule was persistent in its history.
Description of the Author’s Thesis
In the book The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, Barrack Obama presents a thesis that despite the fact that American Democrats and Republicans disagree on the means through which they accomplish their goals, there must be some values that both of these conflicting political sides must agree. He believes that this is the point at which change starts. According to Obama, he believes that America will not witness any change if the political parties continue to see each other as enemies. While demonstrating his leadership qualities, personal qualities as well as life experiences in a subjective manner, Obama exhibits response to the domestic underscores and controversies that he faced from his childhood to the time he served as the Illinois senator.
Critique of the Author’s Thesis and Argument
In the 2004 Democratic Convention, Barrack Obama delivered a speech he titled “The Audacity of Hope,” which was about twenty minutes. The speech made him a highly ranked potential political figure in the United States presidential position. Later in 2006-07, he released this book, which bore the same title to his prior speech. This time round, the book-long account expanded the senator’s ideas in the speech in 2004. This book, which combines policy analysis and autobiography, is an interesting read and delivers the author’s message throughout the chronological chapters and evenly distributed delineations that advance the author’s thesis. As expected by several political readers, Obama opens the prologue of this book with the account of his political career, which started after graduating from law school. Obama additionally explains that his experience at the University of Chicago as a constitutional law lecturer stimulated his political career as well as the drive to write this book.
The major thesis of this book is addressed in the first chapter, “Republicans and Democrats,” where he recounts his election to the Illinois senatorial seat and the party politics that have led to partisan division in the United States. According to Obama, he believes that the notion that Democrats should take an articulate stance against their Republican counterparts does not propel the development of the States. In this argument, which I also support, I believe that Obama explains the interesting part that most conservative politicians would not easily accept. Obama who believes in change indicates that changing the political sphere in America also results in economic and social development. The following chapter addresses values, which Obama also believes determine the political relationships between the Republican and Democrat parties. In the current political sphere, the media for instance has made values unrealistic, especially the social media. The author accurately indicates the importance of such values in politics as well as the difficulty that has arisen in the past political scene.
During his political formative years, Obama served as constitutional law scholar and lecturer. This experience with the constitution fueled his writing that delineates the contradicting discussions on the correct approach to the interpretation and implementation of the American constitution. Obama even makes an appeal to ethos through giving of his example when he first became a senator and had a discussion with other lawmakers whom he believed had better understanding of the constitution, yet contradicting in them. The most interesting thing in this part is the fact that Obama admits that the United States constitution is an important document, but also advices that the document should be applied with flexibility to encompass the diversity in America and the dynamic political and social atmospheres.
Obama does not fail to address the political atmosphere surrounding major elections, where political aspirants pledge their loyalty to special interest groups in order to attain funding programs. He believes that these groups ignore the general interest of the public and use their influence on the aspirants to advance their selfish ideas. His national healthcare and education policies have been represented in this instrumental read as well. The “senator” believes that the education and healthcare systems in the United States operate to the disadvantage of the societal poor. He additionally believes that faith should increase the moral convictions of the American population instead f creating divisions between the Democrats and Republicans. He also uses his vast experience in different neighborhoods to discuss his family and race in American politics. Obama believes that embracing unity at the expense of racial discrimination is important to American politics and economic development. Finally, he considers that the current politics requires embracing good neighborhoods and international relationships. However, Obama equally considers securing the United States borders as significant to the protection of American privileges.
Conclusion
In my opinion, after reading this book, I have found that the only weakness is the fact that the author covers mostly the Democrats in his political agenda and gives less about the Republicans except in the comparisons. However, I believe the author critically analyzed his thesis and argued to support his hypotheses. The title of this book itself confirms that the book is a perfect read since it shares the same title with his conventional speech that gave him much credit. This book helped understand the possible causes of the conflicts between the Republicans and Democrats as well as possible solutions in the eyes of an expert, Barrack Obama. The biggest message that I have from this book is that even though the Republicans and Democrats differ in policy implementation, they should have some common ground to discuss the plight of the American public. I would recommend this book to the general public since the author of this book is the current U.S. president, and the contents of this book still include the basis of his policy implementation.
Works Cited:
Obama, Barrack. “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.” Edinburgh, Scotland: Canongate Books, 2007. Print
Clinton, Bill. My life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. Print
Plouffe, David. The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barrack Obama's Historic Victory. Farmington Hills: Thorndike Press/Gale Cengage Learning, 2010. Print
