Listening to this book felt a bit like time traveling, getting to know a much younger Obama who explains his views and hopes for the future, while today we know how the topics he refers to have developed.
While many of the principles that are laid down are timeless, some things feel a bit dated of course. In the end, I enjoyed listening to the political anecdotes and the stories of Obama's personal life more than a lot of the actual politics - but then, most of those are nothing new in 2024, which is not the book's fault. ( )

(2006)NF. A very good insight into the Presidential candidate before that was a possibility. PW Ilinois's Democratic senator illuminates the constraints of mainstream politics all too well in this sonorous manifesto. Obama (Dreams from My Father) castigates divisive partisanship (especially the Republican brand) and calls for a centrist politics based on broad American values. His own cautious liberalism is a model: he's skeptical of big government and of Republican tax cuts for the rich and Social Security privatization; he's prochoice, but respectful of prolifers; supportive of religion, but not of imposing it. The policy result is a tepid Clintonism, featuring tax credits for the poor, a host of small-bore programs to address everything from worker retraining to teen pregnancy, and a health-care program that resembles Clinton's Hillary-care proposals. On Iraq, he floats a phased but open-ended troop withdrawal. His triangulated positions can seem conflicted: he supports free trade, while deploring its effects on American workers (he opposed the Central American Free Trade Agreement), in the end hoping halfheartedly that more support for education, science and renewable energy will see the economy through the dilemmas of globalization. Obama writes insightfully, with vivid firsthand observations, about politics and the compromises forced on politicians by fund-raising, interest groups, the media and legislative horse-trading. Alas, his muddled, uninspiring proposals bear the stamp of those compromises.

My local library had this book as an ipod download (along with ipods to check out!) so I enjoyed listening to Barack narrate the book himself. He shares stories from his family, faith journey and early career. His balanced insights and thoughtful ideas for addressing the ills of our society made me a believer. He's got my vote. ( )

An inspiring book, full of great ideas and lucid explanations. I learned a lot about Obama's view of how our government works, and a lot about the government in general. My favorite theme was his emphasis on the value of amicable conflict in coming to compromise which works and serves us, rather than serves an ideology. He talks about how the whole "check and balances" thing we are taught in school is not just to prevent tyranny, but to engender discussion. We're forced to spend a great deal of time talking over what our government is going to do, and so we are forced to understand each other a little bit more.

I still liked his first book more. ( )

excellent
highly readable
written while a Senator ( )