Sign up for the Simon & Schuster Audio Monthly Update
Buy the Download!
Buy the CD!
More about The Promise
One of the country’s most respected journalists and historians produces the first inside look at Obama’s dramatic debut. Featuring exclusive audio of his interview with Barack Obama
Barack Obama’s inauguration as president on January 20, 2009, inspired the world. But the great promise of “Change We Can Believe In” was immediately tested by the threat of another Great Depression, a worsening war in Afghanistan, and an entrenched and deeply partisan system of business as usual in Washington. Despite all the coverage, the backstory of Obama’s historic first year in office has until now remained a mystery.
What happened in 2009 inside the Oval Office? What worked and failed? What is the president really like? These questions are answered here for the first time, in a fast-paced and incisive narrative of a young risk-taking president carving his own path amid sky-high expectations, surging joblessness, Pentagon insubordination, and a frustrating health care debate that finally led to triumph.
In Alter’s telling, the real Obama is an authentic, demanding, unsentimental, and sometimes over-confident leader. He adapted to the presidency with ease and put more “points on the board” than he is given credit for, but neglected to use his leverage over the banks and failed to connect well with an angry public. We see the famously calm president cursing leaks, playfully trash-talking his advisors, and joking about even the most taboo subjects, still intent on redeeming more of his promise as the problems mount.
A brilliant blend of journalism and history, The Promise offers the freshest reporting and most acute perspective on the biggest story of our time. It will shape impressions of the Obama presidency and of the man himself for years to come.
Featuring an exclusive half hour interview with the author and President Obama – listen to an excerpt now!
