The Audacity of Hope Review
The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
I know I'm late getting to this book. Six years too late, especially after his re-election. But man, was this worth reading. It's a well known fact that President Obama is an amazing orator, so it's not that surprising to find out how amazing his writing is. It is* amazing to realize that this politician's writing far surpasses most writers of today. I don't know if this is more a testament to the quality of his own person or a testament to how poor a lot of books are today...
In The Audacity of Hope, Obama expounds upon many of his political views, often citing more moderate stances and calling for more discussion, compromise, and genuine passion in moving America towards a brighter future. What I love so much about this book, is that so much of what he points out as our biggest obstacles is what I've often thought in the past. Our move towards extremes, towards more and more discord over details when large areas of policies need to be completely redone. Obama takes these areas, highlights them, and throws them in our faces, asking, "what are we actually* going to do about this?". The problem, I think, is that when faced with unpleasant truths, it is far too easy to brush them away and forget about them, far too easy to bury then in the near-constant stream of online posts and twitters.
Yet The Audacity of Hope gave me hope. Hope that perhaps, if enough people read this or hear its message, we will finally listen to each other and come together in solutions. Hope that the media and politicians will start acting for the actual good of America, and not out of desire for more votes and political support. Hope that despite our recent trials and tribulations, they will be just that, and that America will be able to save ourselves in time, and regain the strength and power we once had.
“I wonder, sometimes, whether men and women in fact are capable of learning from history--whether we progress from one stage to the next in an upward course or whether we just ride the cycles of boom and bust, war and peace, ascent and decline.”
“Each path to knowledge involves different rules and these rules are not interchangeable.” (reminds me of democracy)
“I wish the country had fewer lawyers and more engineers.”
“Someone once said that every man is trying to live up to his father's expectations or make up for their father's mistakes....”
"That was the best of the American spirit, I thought-having the audacity to believe despite all the evidence to the contrary that we could restore a sense of community to a nation torn by conflict; the gall to believe that despite personal setbacks, the loss of job or an illness in the family or a childhood mired in poverty, we had some control-and therefore responsibility-over our own fate.
It was that audacity, I thought, that joined us as one people. It was that pervasive spirit of hope that tied my own family's story to the larger American story."
"Senator Obama, what is your place in history?"
