The Audacity of Hope
Barack Obama, 2006
★ 3.84 from 171.9k ratings on Goodreads
A senator’s account of how American politics works—and might work better—written from inside the campaign trail, the Senate, and the arguments that divide us. A warm, thoughtful voice moves through campaign stops and Senate rooms, mixing personal reflection with plain talk about power and hope.
Feels like hope, unease and awe. About death, freedom and power.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy political memoir that thinks aloud about compromise, faith, and public life. Some readers find the middle stretches rambling and the policy reflections more asserted than argued, so expect a slower, uneven read.
Why read it
It offers a close look at how a senator weighs ideals against deals, and why hope can be a practical stance rather than a slogan.
A page from the book
The difference between being in the house and being present in it.
I reminded the men in the audience that being a father meant more than fathering a child; that even those of us who were physically present in the home are often emotionally absent; that precisely because many of us didn’t have fathers in the house we have to redouble our efforts to break the cycle; and that if we want to pass on high expectations to our children, we have to have higher expectations for ourselves. What readers say
Readers vary: many leave inspired and hopeful, drawn to the memoir's apparently warm, thoughtful voice. But others complain of proving political musings and rambling, doubting the book's subtance and conception of what made America grood.
Barack Obama.Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago for twelve years before entering politics; the book’s title came from a sermon by Jeremiah Wright.
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Questions readers ask
- Is The Audacity of Hope for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy political memoir that thinks aloud about compromise, faith, and public life. Some readers find the middle stretches rambling and the policy reflections more asserted than argued, so expect a slower, uneven read.
- What is The Audacity of Hope like?
- A warm, thoughtful voice moves through campaign stops and Senate rooms, mixing personal reflection with plain talk about power and hope. Feels like hope, unease and awe. About death, freedom and power.
- What should I read after The Audacity of Hope?
- If you liked The Audacity of Hope, try John Adams (David McCullough), Man's Search for Meaning (Viktor E. Frankl) and Crossing the Threshold of Hope (John Paul II).
A taste of the feed
A revolution begins in minds, long before the first shot.
As to the history of the revolution, my ideas may be peculiar, perhaps singular. What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760–1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington.
John Adams · David McCullough
The people who hold the world together are never the majority.
You may of course ask whether we really need to refer to “saints.” Wouldn’t it suffice just to refer to decent people? It is true that they form a minority. More than that, they always will remain a minority. And yet I see therein the very challenge to join the minority. For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best. So, let us be alert — alert in a twofold sense: Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.
Man's Search for Meaning · Viktor E. Frankl
Hell is less a sentence handed down than a door locked from the inside.
Resurrection of the body is to be preceded by a judgment passed upon the works of charity, fulfilled or neglected. As a result of this judgement, the just are destined to eternal life. There is a destination to eternal damnation as well, which consists in the ultimate rejection of God, the ultimate break of the communion with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here, it is not so much God who rejects man, but man who rejects God.
Crossing the Threshold of Hope · John Paul II
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