New York Times Bestseller One of the Washington Post's 10 Best Books of 2017 Rising Star is the
definitive account of Barack Obama's formative years that made him the man who became the
forty-fourth president of the United States-from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Bearing
the Cross Barack Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention instantly catapulted
him into the national spotlight and led to his election four years later as America's first
African-American president. In this penetrating biography David J. Garrow delivers an epic
work about the life of Barack Obama creating a rich tapestry of a life little understood
until now. Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama captivatingly describes Barack Obama's
tumultuous upbringing as a young black man attending an almost-all-white elite private school
in Honolulu while being raised almost exclusively by his white grandparents. After recounting
Obama's college years in California and New York Garrow charts Obama's time as a Chicago
community organizer working in some of the city's roughest neighborhoods his years at the top
of his Harvard Law School class and his return to Chicago where Obama honed his skills as a
hard-knuckled politician first in the state legislature and then as a candidate for the United
States Senate. Detailing a scintillating behind-the-scenes account of Obama's 2004 speech a
moment that labeled him the Democratic Party's rising star Garrow also chronicles Obama's four
years in the Senate weighing his stands on various issues against positions he had taken years
earlier and recounts his thrilling run for the White House in 2008. In Rising Star David J.
Garrow has created a vivid portrait that reveals not only the people and forces that shaped the
future president but also the ways in which he used those influences to serve his larger
aspirations. This is a gripping read about a young man born into uncommon family circumstances
whose faith in his own talents came face-to-face with fantastic ambitions and a desire to do
good in the world. Most important Rising Star is an extraordinary work of biography-tremendous
in its research and storytelling and brilliant in its analysis of the all-too-human struggles
of one of the most fascinating politicians of our time.
