A Promised Land Book Summary

Book Summary

15 min

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Brief Summary

President Obama grew up in Hawaii and didn’t begin to express real interest in politics until college. He worked as a community organizer before attending Harvard Law School. After graduation, he was elected to the Illinois State Senate twice. He was selected to give the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, which garnered him national attention and led many people to urge him to run for president. Obama entered the 2008 presidential election against Republican nominee John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin. He won the election but faced extremely partisan Republicans in Congress who tried to block his bills. Regardless, Obama worked to pass the Recovery Act, to help solve the 2008 financial crisis and the Affordable Care Act. When it came to foreign policy, Obama maintained a steady American presence in the Middle East and tried to balance the need for stability with democratic ideals.

About the Author

Barack Obama served as the 44th president of the United States. He is a politician, attorney, and former Illinois U.S. senator. Obama was the first African-American president of the United States. Previously, he worked as a civil rights attorney, taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, and worked as a community organizer in Chicago. Obama received his B.A. from Columbia University and earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Topics

Biography & Memoir

A Promised Land Book Summary Preview

What You’ll Learn

How reading opened Obama’s eyes up to politics when he was young
The DNC speech that marked the turning point of Obama’s career
The challenges Obama faced during the primary and presidential elections
How extremely partisan Republicans made passing bills to solve the 2008 fiscal crisis and improve health care difficult

Who Is This For

Political scientists and students who are interested in learning about Obama’s rise to the presidency
Citizens who want a behind-the-scenes look at the Obama presidency
People who are curious about the challenges Obama faced throughout his campaign and presidency

Key Insights

President Obama spent his childhood with his mother and grandparents in Hawaii. He was a mediocre student, and it wasn’t until he was a little older than he began to express interest in big questions about inequality. He turned to books for answers, which sparked his interest in politics. He graduated from Columbia University and began working as a community organizer in Chicago, which cemented his interest in policy. He wanted to learn how to implement real change that would have an effect on real Americans, so he returned to school, earning his J.D. from Harvard Law School and becoming the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.

Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate twice, but his political career really took off following his landmark keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Following the speech, many people urged Obama to run for president, and in 2007 he announced he would be entering the primary race. Obama became the Democratic nominee for president and faced Republican John McCain in the presidential election.

Upon entering office, Obama had to address the 2008 global financial crisis but was hindered by extreme partisan Republicans in Congress who refused to compromise and reach across the aisle. He encountered similar problems when he attempted to push through new healthcare legislation. Regardless, the Affordable Care Act passed, extending health care options for Americans. Obama tried to maintain a balance between steady authority and democratic ideals when it came to foreign policy. One of Obama’s most famous foreign policy accomplishments was authorizing the special ops mission that killed Osama bin Laden.

The Early Years

Born Barack Hussein Obama in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1961, the future president was raised by his mother and his maternal grandparents. As a young child, he didn’t show any early signs of political ambition. Rather, he liked to party and play basketball, and he did not particularly excel in his studies. However, by high school, he had begun to wonder about some of the injustices that he saw in his everyday life. For example, he saw that many professional basketball players he watched on TV were Black, but saw no Black coaches. He also began to wonder why honest, hard-working Americans were still struggling to make ends meet. His grandparents did not have the answers to these questions, so he turned to books. Reading began to help expand his view of the world around him.

In 1979, he began attending Occidental College in Los Angeles. He...