3 Topics To Look For in Barack Obama’s Upcoming Memoir

A Promised Land is set to be released on November 17th

Continuity. That’s certainly one theme to expect from the first instalment of Barack Obama’s presidential memoirs titled A Promised Land. This will be Barack Obama’s third memoir after Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope, and as such there will likely be seamlessness that connects this memoir to his prior best-selling and critically acclaimed works.

Over the past few years, we’ve had significant insights into the Obama years, most notably from Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming. The World As It Is by Barack Obama’s speechwriter and advisor, Ben Rhodes, also provided a detailed look into the Obama presidency. The first volume of A Promised Land is said to cover the years of Barack Obama’s presidency until 2011 and I anticipate the complexity, nuance and detailed parsing through of some of the most significant events of the past decade by one of the most important figures in recent history. Here are 3 topics that I anticipate Barack Obama will expound on in-depth in his memoir:

1. The State of Democracy Leading Up to 2016

One of the most riveting images of the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. election was that of President Barack Obama in Greece touring the Acropolis in Athens. Although the first volume of his memoir will only go up to the year 2011, it will be interesting to read about early indicators of global trends illustrating shifts away from democratic institutions and values. I am quite certain that Barack Obama will address the elephant in the room and provide readers with at least some of his reflections on the 2016 U.S. election, and the state of democracy not only in the United States but around the world.

2. The Rise of Racism in the U.S. Following the 2008 election

I am especially interested in reading about Barack Obama’s experience of being the first African-American president of the United States. In his two prior memoirs, Barack Obama spoke at length about identity and belonging, and I anticipate reading more about this part of his journey especially as it coincided with racist attacks against him, Michelle Obama and other African-Americans. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that the number of white supremacist groups in the U.S. went up in 2008 after the historic election of Barack Obama. I have often wondered how Barack Obama grappled with this information, especially when major media networks in the U.S. were claiming that America had become “post-racial” society immediately after the 2008 election.

3. International Terrorism

Whether it was the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013, Charlie Hebdo and the 2015 Paris attacks, the Obama administration had to constantly respond to terrorist attacks happening around the world. As someone who reported and wrote about the rise of extremism and terrorism between 2013–2015, I am especially keen to read about Barack Obama’s reflections on this tumultuous period which continues to affect so many people around the world. I hope that A Promised Land provides a detailed look into Barack Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo and his reflections on the Arab Spring. Other events that I expect to read about in this first volume is the killing of Osama Bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda operatives, the beginnings of the Syrian Civil War, and early indications of the emergence of ISIS.