RISING STAR: The Making of Barack Obama (William Morrow, May 9th, 2017) is the most in-depth portrait yet of the man who would become the 44th President of the United States, written by eminent historian David J. Garrow—winner of the Pulitzer-Prize for BEARING THE CROSS: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
RISING STAR delivers a page-turning, fully-realized rendering of 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. Pulitzer-Prize winning historian David J. Garrow has spent nine years researching and writing this epic work about Obama’s life before his election to the presidency. He has interviewed more than a thousand people to create a rich tapestry of a life little understood, until now. With inexhaustible commitment and passion to producing a history of record, Garrow’s gripping narrative and fervent analysis yields a publication of and for the ages.
Epic in scope and with news-making material throughout, RISING STAR reveals, uncovers and synthesizes year-by-year the inner workings of Obama’s development. DETAILS INCLUDE:
● Describes in greater detail than ever before how absent Obama’s mother was from his young life. We see a young black man being raised almost exclusively by his white grandparents and attending a predominantly white private school in Honolulu.
● Documents the extent of Obama’s use of marijuana while in high school and his use of cocaine during his college years and his early years in New York.
● Reveals for the first time the identity of a woman Obama lived with for more than two years while he was a community organizer in Chicago. Garrow describes the extent of this relationship and its influence on Obama. She tells Garrow what he saw as his destiny, and why he felt it was important for him to marry an African American woman to achieve that.
● Shows how Obama challenged the ballot petitions of his challengers during his first run for public office—particularly those of incumbent Illinois state senator Alice Palmer—eliminating his competition for the Democratic nomination.
● Describes the disaster of Obama’s challenge to U.S. Congressman Bobby Rush in 2000 and the lessons he learned and put to use for his successful run for United States Senate in 2004.
● Documents how closely Obama worked with African American women while in Chicago as a community organizer and his immersion in the world of black churches, based on scores of never-before-interviewed colleagues from that time.
● Recounts the various people whom Obama told, during his first Chicago years, that he intended to be president of the United States, and how he planned to achieve that.
● Identifies Obama’s closest friend during his Harvard Law School years and shows not only that he and Obama authored a book together before Obama wrote Dreams From My Father but that he played a key editorial role in the crafting of Obama’s memoir.
● Paints a vivid picture of the origins of the economic downfall of the far South Side of Chicago into which Obama was thrust when he was hired as an entry-level community organizer.
● Describes in greater detail than ever before Obama’s relationship with Genevieve Cook, with whom he was involved with during his years in New York.
● Reveals that before Obama attended Harvard Law School—and taking on considerable debt – he turned down a full scholarship to the prestigious Northwestern University Law School.
David J. Garrow has created a penetrating 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. More important, RISING STAR is an extraordinary work of biography—tremendous in its research and storytelling and brilliant in its analysis of one of the most fascinating politicians of our time