Barack Obama for Beginners

An Essential Guide

Barack Obama for Beginners: An Essential Guide is the most concise and reliable short biography available on the 44th president of the United States­­ - from his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia, education at Columbia and Harvard, work as a community organizer, writer, teacher, lawyer, and politician in Illinois, to his historic nomination as president. Barack Obama for Beginners keeps the focus on the man and his record - accomplishments and missteps, praise and criticism - to allow readers to gain a balanced undertanding of President Obama as they follow his rise to the White House.©2009 Bob Neer (P)2009 For Beginners LLC

Historical, informative, supportive

I'm one of those people sitting in between liberalism and conservative beliefs, and I was seeking a condensed peek into Obama-- something written by someone else. This book certainly gives a valid historical account of Obama, his parents and their parents. The 5 major parts to the book are smartly divided by the periods of Barack's life.

Of course, any biographical text will likely show support of the man, but I did feel like the book was pretty level-headed, without gushing all over Obama as God's gift to America. It did point out a few peculiar gritty details about the conservative campaign, but it did so without discrediting the writer's work up to that point.

The narration was alright, though the last section was really strangely paced, with long gaps between words that didn't even require punctuation. But hey. It's a non-fiction text, not a fantasy story.

Worth a read, if you're wanting to brush up on some history, instead of reading just another Obama speech.