The Bridge by David Remnick
The rise of Barack Obama is one of the great stories of this century: a defining moment in American history, and one with truly global resonance. Until now, no journalist or historian has written a book that fully investigates the circumstances and experiences of Obama's life or explores the ambition and conviction behind his journey to election. The Bridge from a writer whose gift for illuminating the historical significance of unfolding events is unsurpassed offers a portrait, at once masterly and fresh, nuanced and unexpected, of the man who was determined to become the first African-American president. Through extensive on-the-record interviews with friends and teachers, mentors and disparagers, family members and Obama himself, David Remnick allow us to see an early life coloured by absence and uncertainty: one that asked demanding questions of a rootless and literate man in search of himself, sending him firstly towards social work and then into law. Deftly setting Obama's burgeoning political career against the volatile scene in Chicago, Remnick shows us how it was that city's complex racial legacy that shaped the young politician and made his first forays into politics a source of controversy and bare-knuckle tactics: his clashes with older black politicians in the Illinois State Senate, his disastrous decision to challenge the former Black Panther Bobby Rush for Congress in 2000, the sex scandals that would decimate his more experienced opponents in the 2004 Senate race, and the story from both sides of his confrontation with his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. In exploring the way in which Barack Obama imagined and fashioned an identity for himself against the backdrop of race in America, Remnick illuminates an American life without precedent, and reminds us that, electrifying though Obama's victory may have been, there was nothing fated about it. Interrogating both the personal and political elements of the story and, most crucially, the points at which they intersect he gives shape to a decisive period of American history, and in turn, to the way it crucially influenced, animated and motivated a gifted and complex man.
David Remnick has been the editor of the New Yorker since 1998. He was a staff writer for the magazine from 1992 to 1998 and, previous to that, the Washington Post’s correspondent in the Soviet Union. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire. He lives in New York City with his wife and children.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780330509947 |
| ISBN 10 | 0330509942 |
| Title | The Bridge |
| Author | David Remnick |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Pan Macmillan |
| Year published | 2010-05-07 |
| Number of pages | 672 |
| Prizes | Long-listed for BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize 2011 (UK) |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |