Author Description

Peter Baker's authoritative history of the Obama presidency is the first complete account that will stand the test of time. Baker takes the measure of Obama's achievements and disappointments in office and brings into focus the real legacy of the man who, as he described himself, "doesn't look like all the presidents on the dollar bills." "'His first line in the history books was written the day he won office as the first African-American president, but he was determined to offer more than simply a new complexion in the Oval Office.' So writes Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times, about the 44th president of the United States. In this vivid and in-depth illustrated account of Barack Obama's years in office, Baker chronicles a period of great hope, tumult, accomplishment and, yes, failure. This is the story of a young president who took on the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression, forged a controversial health care program, watched anxiously in the Situation Room after approving the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and endured mid-term election defeats. In a presidency buffeted by one crisis after another, he struggled with the Syrian civil war, a Russian invasion of its neighbor, the rise of the Islamic State, and, at home, often violent racial strife and a recalcitrant Congress. Inspiring in a crowded stadium yet diffident behind the scenes, Obama was a master politician who loathed politics. To many, he was an enigma, often seen through the lens of the observer--a liberal zealot to the right, an overeager compromiser to the left. 'I am like a Rorschach test,' he once noted. But he was the dominant figure of his age. After eight eventful years, he would never be the same--and neither would his country."--Jacket.