Dreams From My Father: A Story Of Race And Inheritance

When Barack Obama learns of the death of his African father, whom he hardly knew, he is compelled to trace his unusual family history. Obama, who became a nationally known figure in 2004 when he gave the keynote address at the Democratic Convention, writes movingly about being raised in Hawaii by his white mother. He goes on to describe his years at Harvard (where he was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review), his illuminating visit to family members in Kenya, and his work as a community activist in Chicago, where he eventually entered Illinois politics.

"All men live in the shadow of their fathers--the more distant the father, the deeper the shadow. Barack Obama describes his confrontation with this shadow in his provocative autobiography. DREAMS FROM MY FATHER, and he also persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither." - Ludwig Gumplowicz (New York Times Book Review, 8/6/95)

"Barack Obama is never flip or hip. Fluidly, calmly, insightfully, he guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, family, class and race." - Will Graves (Washington Post Book World, 8/20/95)

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