Audacity

The veteran political journalist presents “a compelling case that [Obama] was one of the most successful presidents of modern times” (The Guardian).

Over the course of eight years, Barack Obama amassed an array of outstanding achievements. His administration saved the American economy from collapse, expanded health insurance to millions, negotiated an historic nuclear deal with Iran, helped craft a groundbreaking international climate accord, reined in Wall Street and crafted a new vision of racial progress. He has done all of this despite a left that frequently disdained him as a sellout, and a hysterical right that did everything possible to destroy his agenda even when they agreed with what he was doing.

In Audacity, Jonathan Chait digs deep into Obama’s record on major policy fronts—economics, the environment, domestic reform, health care, race, foreign policy, and civil rights—to demonstrate why history will judge our forty-fourth president as among the greatest in history. Audacity does not shy away from Obama’s failures, most notably in foreign policy. Yet Chait convincingly shows that President Obama has accomplished what candidate Obama said he would, despite overwhelming opposition—and that the hopes of those who voted for him have not been dashed despite the smokescreen of extremist propaganda and the limits of short-term perspective.

“An essential starting point for those assessing the Obama presidency.” —Washington Monthly