First published 2010
Barack Obama entered the presidency on January 20, 2009, facing potential economic collapse, an expanding Afghan war, and Washington's entrenched partisanship. Jonathan Alter draws on exclusive White House access to chronicle Obama's turbulent debut year. The book reveals how Obama seized control weeks before his election, made trillion-dollar stimulus decisions before inauguration, and pushed through unpopular bank and auto bailouts. Against advice from Vice President Biden and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Obama insisted on major healthcare reform. Alter shows the president preventing congressional fistfights, confronting insubordinate military leaders, and crashing climate negotiations in Copenhagen. The portrait emerges of a demanding, unsentimental leader who adapted quickly to presidential power but struggled to connect with an angry public and failed to leverage his influence over Wall Street.
Genres: political-science, biography-memoir, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: leadership, political-drama
Setting: Washington, Copenhagen
Period: 2009
459 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster