The Audacity of Hope

Barack Obama's first book, Dreams from My Father, was a compelling and moving memoir focusing on personal issues of race, identity, and community. With his second book The Audacity of Hope, Obama offers a vision of the future that involves repairing a "political process that is broken," restoring a government that has fallen out of touch with the people, and bringing the political parties together. "There are a lot of well-meaning people in both political parties," he writes. "Unfortunately, the political culture tends to emphasize conflict, the media emphasizes conflict, and the structure of our campaigns rewards the negative. When you focus on solving problems instead of scoring political points, and emphasize common sense over ideology, you'd be surprised what can be accomplished."