A Promised Land
Usually, when I read a presidential biography or memoir, the experience is a view into another era but reading A Promised Land was unique in that I was reliving the national events of my late twenties — from the financial crisis to the great recession, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Arab Spring, Deepwater Horizon, to the efforts to address climate change and the ACA. That said, Obama’s first of two memoirs certainly provided new insight and perspective into the events of the first three years of his presidency. These were events I followed very closely at the time but I gained an appreciation for the the process — the sometimes necessary but unsightly compromises one must make when working with congress to pass legislation. I appreciated Obama’s unvarnished descriptions of all the actors and frank accounts of events-the “ritualized” Mid East peace diplomacy, etc. as well as the thoughtful insights into how he sees his place in history and the impact of his political ambitions on his family.
