Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance | 
| Author: Barack Obama
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $7.49
You Save: $7.46 (50%)
New (76) Used (68) Collectible (2) from $5.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  251 reviews
Sales Rank: 93
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 1400082773
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.04960730092
EAN: 9781400082773
ASIN: 1400082773
Publication Date: August 10, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Fast and Professional Shipping (no shipping to: APO, FPO, POBs, AK, HI, PR). Thank you!
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 246 more reviews...
 Interesting July 2, 2008
Was educational as to Barack's life. Just started another one of his books, "The Audacity of Hope".
 Even though we disagree on solutions to problems this title is still an instant classic!! July 2, 2008
Politically me and Senator Obama are pretty closely aligned for the exception of Sen. Obama being a litle warmer to the idea of government sponsored solutions to our nation's most pressing problems. In this book you see that way of thinking exposed at key moments. Take for instance when he is helping some folks with housing, in which he fails to call out that government sponsored housing has been one of the most socially disastrous actions ever undertaken. His stories are still profoundly moving and show how they shape the man that we see today. It is a must read if you are planning on voting! It quickly and strongly explains some of the nonsense that conservatives will cling on to in order to undermine him.
 Where Charity Begins (A Non-Political Review) July 2, 2008
As the most progressive of our generation evolve toward a global race, Obama's depiction of searching for his place in the world is something that many who are susceptible to feeling stuck in the middle can relate to. With the influence of multiple nationalities, lifestyles and mentalities, Barack, as a side effect of his circumstances, explores the world of social norms and mores across continents and cultures.
The chapters in Chicago where he offers his organizing services and works hard to make changes within a tight system of non-action were new to me but it's the last few chapters in particular that resonate with me - as he travels to Kenya in search of an understanding of his deceased father.
We circle back to the idea that we don't know where we are going unless we know where we come from. By tracing through the family tree, as close as possible to his origins, I believe he finds the history he needs to inspire him forward. The revelation of his father's identity through the landscape and an array of good and bad narratives doesn't quite answer all his questions but it does intertwine him into the fabric of his past and a present day community that is a part of his heritage. Trekking through the shanty towns in the outskirts of the city, exposing himself to the harsh realities of lineage, he seems to get in tune with himself and, as the journey unfolds, there is a noticeable difference between the first few chapters and the last.
In Dreams From My Father, Obama strives to complete that core circle of self-discovery, of "Race and Inheritance" before he can move on to the outer rings of law and politics. He makes himself vulnerable by sharing the truths of his foundation in a world where families are rarely perfect, poverty pervades and we sometimes learn who we want to be by witnessing other's mistakes and through the process of elimination.
Whether he wants to carry the baton righteously forward or make amends for a path gone wrong, Barack Obama definitely carries the torch of a new era.
Sure, read it.
Man of Values July 1, 2008
Barack Obama's autobiography or "coming of age" memoir of his childhood and young adulthood is a wonderful read--engrossing, inspiring--it reads like a novel in its intensity. The influences on the maturing of this young black/white man seem to make him a man of the future: one of multi-ethnicity, multicultures, at home all over the world with all nationalities of people as well as people in every economic and social group, knowing Christian and non-Christian religions, fluent in several languages and from all this, developing a gift for communication, inspiration and leadership. His strong values of honesty and compassion derive from direct experience while young and role modeling of strong elders. This is a book that people can enjoy, regardless of political affiliations and Obama comes across as a man people can't help but admire for strength, commitment, perception and the one characteristic of all humans--"hope."
A Good Quick Read... June 29, 2008
56 out of 68 found this review helpful
...which I read before anyone began to take Obama's chances of being nominated for president seriously. Still, it had the tenor of a campaign biography -- careful, modest, strategic, and yes, evasive at times. The most any campaign biography ever provides is a sense of the subject's priorities; in other words, you won't find many clues to Obama's specific positions on world issues in the account of his childhood. You will, however, get a feeling of the man, and you will discover an American who has far wider experience of other cultures, and far greater optimism about a multi-cultural society, than any other politician on the scene. Those who proclaim that Obama lacks "experience" in foreign policy are dead wrong; one strong foundation for foreign policy is a knowledge of the rest of the world based on first-hand experience.
I'm reviewing this book today because I found a story in the morning newspaper, telling how young Obama supporters on the internet are adding his middle name, Hussein, to their tags and even to the real names. Hey, I'm a young supporter at heart! Henceforth, call me Giordano Hussein Bruno!
|
|
|
