"Barack Obama, father of the American president, was part of Africa's "independence generation" and in 1959 it seemed his star would shine brightly. He came to the U.S. from Kenya and was given a university scholarship. While in the Hawaii, he met Ann Dunham in 1961, and his son Barack was born. He left his young family to gain a master's degree from Harvard. After that, Obama's life became progressively more complicated. He was a brilliant economist,...

Award-winning reporter Scott uncovers the full breadth of Stanley Ann Dunham's inspiring and untraditional life. "To describe Dunham as a white woman from Kansas is about as illumination as describing her son as a politician who likes golf. Intentionally or not, the label obscures an extraordinary story of a girl with a boy's name who grew up in the years before the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the Vietnam war and the Pill; who married...

Part memoir, part how-to, and part progressive political handbook, this book takes the reader on a journey that begins in the Haitian-American enclave in Queens, New York, where Jean-Pierre grew up and ends with her working in the Obama White House.