Selected Bibliography

Barack Obama’s three autobiographies—Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1996); The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2006); and A Promised Land (New York: Crown, 2020)—offer a map of his life through the assassination of Osama bin Laden in 2011. They also spotlight how he came to make the decisions he did both before and during his presidency. First Lady Michelle Obama’s best-selling autobiography, Becoming (New York: Crown, 2018), provides additional insights into Barack Obama’s personality and mind. It also reveals Michelle’s dislike of politics and the stresses and strains of her marriage to Barack.

Other members of the Obama administration have also published books that cover their years as part of his presidency and offer considerable insight about the forty-fourth president and the inner workings of his presidency. Among the most important of these are: David Axelrod, Believer: My Forty Years In Politics (New York: Penguin Press, 2016); Jeffrey A. Bader, Obama and China’s Rise: An Insider’s Account of America’s Asia Strategy (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2012); Ben S. Bernanke, The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath (New York: W. W. Norton, 2015); Ash Carter, Inside the Five-Sided Box: Lessons from a Lifetime of Leadership in the Pentagon (New York: Dayton, 2019); Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hard Choices (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2014); Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2017); Robert M. Gates, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary of War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014); Timothy F. Geithner, Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises (New York: Broadway Books, 2014); Valerie Jarrett, Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward (New York: Viking, 2019); John Kerry, Every Day Is Extra (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018); Leon Panetta, Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace (New York: Penguin Books, 2014); Dan Pfeiffer, Yes We (Still) Can: Politics in the Age of Obama, Twitter and Trump (New York: Twelve, 2018); David Plouffe, The Audacity to Win: How Obama Won and How We Can Beat the Party of Limbaugh, Beck, and Palin (New York: Penguin Books, 2010); Steven Rattner, Overhaul: An Insider’s Account of the Obama Administration’s Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010); Susan Rice, Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2019); and Ben Rhodes, The World As It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House (New York: Random House, 2018).

Also important are the memoirs of President George Bush’s treasury secretary during the economic crisis in 2008, Henry M. Paulson Jr., On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System (New York: Business Plus, 2010). On Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell’s determination to make Barack Obama a one-term president, see also Mitch McConnell, The Long Game: A Memoir (New York: Penguin, 2016).

Many of Obama’s major speeches as president can be found in President Barack Obama’s Speeches (n.p.: American Rhetoric, 2009–2017). Other major addresses are in Obama White House Archives (Washington D.C.: Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, 2009–2017).

Full transcripts of Obama’s other addresses routinely appear in such newspapers as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Guardian. I have also relied heavily on these and other newspapers, such as the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Washington Times, Rolling Stone, and Los Angeles Times for important background material.

The secondary literature on various aspects of Obama’s life and presidency is already large. What follows is a select list of these books.

Secondary Sources

Alinsky, Saul D. Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.

Allen, Jonathan, and Amie Parnes. Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign. New York: Crown, 2017.

Alter, Jonathan. The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2013.

Alter, Jonathan. The Promise: President Obama: Year One. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010.

Andersen, Christopher. Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage. New York: William Morrow, 2009.

Baker, Peter, Obama: The Call of History. New York: Callaway, 2017.

Balz, Dan. Collision 2012: Obama vs. Romney and the Future of Elections in America. New York: Penguin, 2013.

Belcher, Cornell. A Black Man in the White House: Barack Obama and the Triggering of America’s Racial-Aversion Crisis. Healdsburg, CA: Water Street Press, 2016.

Brill, Steven. America’s Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Health Care System. New York: Random House, 2015.

Brophy, David. Michelle Obama: Meet the First Lady. New York: Collins, 2009.

Chait, Jonathan. Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy That Will Prevail. New York: Harper Collins, 2017.

Chezick, Amy. Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling. New York: Harper Collins, 2018.

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy. New York: One World, 2017.

Corn, David. Showdown: The Inside Story of How Obama Battled the GOP to Set Up the 2012 Election. New York: William Morrow, 2012.

D’Antonio, Michael. The Legacy of Barack Obama: A Consequential President. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2016.

Draper, Robert. When the Tea Party Came to Town. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012.

Dyson, Michael Eric. The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016.

Emmanuel, Ezekial, Jr. Reinventing American Health. New York: Public Affairs, 2014.

Garrow, David J. Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama (New York: HarperCollins, 2017).

Gerges, Fawaz A. Obama and the Middle East: The End of America’s Moment? New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Grunwald, Michael. The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012.

Halperin, Mark, and John Heilemann. Double Down: Game Change 2012. New York: Penguin Press, 2013.

Harris, Frederick E. The Price of the Ticket: Barack Obama and the Rise and Decline of Black Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014).

Heilemann, John, and Mark Halperin. Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin and the Race of a Lifetime. New York: Harper Collins, 2018.

Jacobs, Sally H. The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama’s Father. New York: Public Affairs, 2011.

Kantor, Jodi. The Obamas. New York: Back Bay Books, 2012.

Klaidman, Daniel. Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.

Kloppenberg, James T. Reading Obama: Dreams, Hopes, and the American Political Traditions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011.

Landler, Mark. Alter Egos: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the Twilight Struggle over American Power. New York: Random House, 2016.

Mann, James. The Obamians: The Struggle inside the White House to Redefine American Power. New York: Penguin Group, 2012.

Mann, Thomas E., and Norman J. Ornstein. It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the Politics of Extremism. New York: Basic Books, 2012.

Maraniss, David. Barack Obama: The Story. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012.

McClelland, Edward. Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of a Black President. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2010.

Mendell, David. Obama: From Promise to Power. New York: Harper Collins, 2007.

Mundy Liza, Michelle: A Biography. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008.

O’Rourke, P. J. How the Hell Did This Happen? The Election of 2016 (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2017).

Posner, Richard A. A Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of ’08 and the Descent into Depression. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.

Remnick, David. The Life and Rise of Barack Obama. New York: Vintage Books, 2011.

Rosenthal, Elisabeth. An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. New York: Penguin Press, 2017.

Sanger, David E. Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power. New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2013.

Sanger, David E. The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power. New York: Harmony Books, 2009.

Savage, Charlie. Power Wars: Inside Obama’s Post-9/11 Presidency. New York: Little, Brown, 2015.

Scheiber, Noam. The Escape Artists: How Obama’s Team Fumbled the Recovery. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2011.

Scott, Janey. A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother. New York: Riverhead Books, 2011.

Sorkin, Andrew Ross. The Big Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System and Themselves. New York: Viking, 2009.

Suskind, Ron. Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President. New York: Harper Collins, 2011.

Suskind, Ron. The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America’s Pursuit of Its Enemies since 9/11. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006.

Wolffe, Richard. Renegade: The Making of a President. New York, Crown Publishers, 2009.

Wolffe, Richard. Revival: The Struggle for Survival inside the Obama White House. New York: Crown, 2010.

Woodward, Bob. Obama’s Wars. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2011.

Woodward, Bob. The Price of Politics. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012.

Zelizer, Julian E., ed. The Presidency of Barack Obama. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018.