 | Not Even Past: Barack Obama and the Burden of Race Subjects: Obama Barack; Obama Barack -- Political and social views; African Americans -- Race identity; Presidents -- United States -- Biography; African Americans -- Biography; African Americans -- Civil rights; United States -- Race relations -- Political aspec; Distinguished civil rights historian and sociologist Sugrue (Sweet Land of Liberty) follows Barack Obama's intellectual journey and political education from his student years in the late 1970s through his first years as president, offering an insightful and fresh glimpse of Obama through three lenses-as intellectual, politician, and policy maker-and with three essays. While David Remnick's comprehensive The Bridge bears thematic similarities, Sugrue offers a pithy and readable survey of some of the same terrain-the path that "rooted the rootless Hawaiian in the history of the Southern freedom struggle" and the formation of his politics that favored "reconciliation over confrontation." Sugrue addresses Obama's Chicago years and the evolution of his thinking on class. And the final essay assesses Obama as candidate and president. Particularly noteworthy is Sugrue's attention to Obama's post-Jeremiah Wright controversy speech in 2008 ("the most learned disquisition on race from a major political figure ever") and a splendid illumination of the roles played by books (particularly the work of William Julius Wilson), by mentors (political and clerical), and by family (especially Michelle Obama's) in Obama's ascent. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved Thomas J. Sugrue is the David Boies Professor of History and Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. His books include Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North and The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Princeton). |
