A promise Land| Best selling book

 A promise Land| Best selling book

hey everyone welcome back to another post  before I get started I have been told that as a real blogger you should ask people to subscribe and all of those

shenanigans at the beginning of the video rather than the end in case people don't watch the whole thing I'm sure none of you guys are like that but

just in case please subscribe to my channel and please like this video and drop a comment if you think any of what I'm saying today is interesting

so without further ado let's get into today's video and as you can tell from the title today i am going to be reviewing none other than Barack Obama's a promised land now

this thing is big 700 pages to be exact actually a little more than 700 pages so um i kind of had to blaze through this book to do this review so please drop this video like anyway so

this is a much-awaited book by former president of the united states Barack obama um it looks great next to becoming on my shelf um i think a lot of people are really

looking forward to this and it's sold like millions of copies so um obviously people are really diving into this we're really looking forward to hearing what president obama

had to say especially now that it's been four years of the trump presidency four years after he's left office so a lot of people are really curious what his thoughts on everything that have

transpired have been and kind of what he has to say about his presidency um so i kind of blazed through this i got it last weekend and finished it this

week um it was definitely a great read would highly recommend i'll just start there and just to kind of give you a quick overview of what's in the book

so he actually starts in the preface by saying that he didn't want to write a book of more than 500 pages but as you know this one's already over 700

pages and it's justn a part one he's going to be writing a second book and i was like if you're already selling this for 45 dollars and then like are you gonna sell the

next one for also 45 and like it's kind of a lot of money but i don't

know i mean it's full of a lot of really interesting information so i guess there's that and i bought my copy from an independent bookstore so i was of course glad to support them

especially throughout the pandemic and everything so anyway it's a large tome and this one actually only goes over the first administration first obama administration so it kind of

starts off he talks a little bit about his childhood and stuff and then quickly gets into the campaign as he was running for president and what that was like

and then when he was when he actually became president 2008 he kind of goes through the biggest events that happened in his first four years in office

between 2008 and before the 2012 campaign actually begins um so it's written a really interesting way where he kind of talks about basically everything in

chronological order and once he gets to the part about the presidency he kind of chronicles the biggest crises as they were happening so there's a really

in-depth discussion about the stimulus in response to the financial crisis a really in-depth discussion about the affordable care act about relations with iran china

india russia other world powers and kind of how we had to navigate those things and it's actually a really interesting look from a perspective that you don't

really get to see because we hear about all these decisions policymakers are making we see the stuff on the news we see like the stuff they put in front as a

as as public statements and stuff like that but you never really get to see what is in the president's mind or what these policy makers are saying behind closed

doors so that part of it was really interesting now i will say that for me personally i was in sixth grade when obama was first elected President  and i obviously didn't have a great

sense of policies or politics even or really what was happening at a federal policy level at all when i was 11 years old like most 11 year olds do um but i remember that like the night he was

ushered in as president it was just such a magical night for so many people because it kind of gave um you know just people hope and that's kind of what he what he

campaigned on was a sense of hope and a sense of change that he was going to usher in a new era of american politics that things were going to change that

people who were suffering were not going to have to suffer anymore that this was just going to be the dawn of a new part of american history and so i remember that and i remember kind of

seeing the looks on my parents faces when they saw like this person of colors becoming president and they looked at me and my sister and were like wow like

you guys could also have aspiration like this like there are opportunities in this country for you to even achieve the highest office in the land

so i remember like that sense of hope that everyone had and over the eight years that he was in president was basically when i came of age when i started to

think more critically about issues like policy in a number of different realms for me personally i studied public health in college so thinking about the affordable care act 

and stuff was you know a central tenant of my studies in school so healthcare was something i thought more about than other fields of policy but obviously i started to think more

about civics and government and stuff like that and i think we know when you get you get to 2016 obviously the biggest thing on everyone's mind is like how did president trump get elected

but the other big thing on your mind is thinking back on the obama presidency you start to start to realize like there was so much hope and change that everyone was talking about in 2008

and in 2016 not actually that much changed about the status quo of american politics and a promised land kind of feels like obama's maya culpa of sorts where he's

admitting that you know he didn't meet the expectations of a lot of progressive liberals who were the reason he got voted into office and he kind of says it like i know i

didn't meet your expectations i didn't meet my own expectations i'm an idealist at heart and then kind of gives a justification walking through the minutia of all of the different

events that were happening during his presidency as to why he was not able to deliver on all those as sarah palin would say hopi changy things that he had said he would do

um and i think he kind of you know definitely posits himself as someone who came into politics with a pie in the sky mentality thought he could bring about a lot of

change and then got kind of bogged down by the reality of washington and talks about the relationships that he had to navigate with ublicans with even other democratic

leaders with leaders from around the world in different countries and just all of the different facets that go into making policy and all the compromises you have to make

that lead you to make decisions that maybe weren't the ones that you were hoping you could make at the start so i think that that was um you know

definitely a perspective that i think was helpful to understand because i like many other people my age definitely thought a lot of things were going to

change during the obama presidency that didn't end up changing and i know in my public health classes

we talk a lot about like you know why wouldn't people want universal health care why wouldn't people want something like medicare for all why did the obama administration settle

for all of the things that they settled for when coming up with the affordable care act and i think hearing the other side like

hearing his justification of why those things had to happen was really interesting it was also interesting to me that the book is definitely catered towards

people who are pretty liberal in their thought process who had all these high expectations of him bringing about all these progressive changes it's not really

targeted towards anyone who disagrees with his fundamental values so you know even the way he talks about climate change in the book for example

is like obviously climate change is a problem if you are an ultra conservative you may not believe that and he doesn't spend any time trying to

convince the reader of his own value system so it's not really targeted towards changing the minds of republicans or changing the minds of

conservatives in any way it's sort of giving progressives more justification for why he kind of had to compromise on a lot of things he had to compromise on

so i thought that was an interesting perspective to bring to the table and one that i appreciated kind of hearing his thought process about

i feel after having read this book that he does take responsibility for these things he doesn't shirk that responsibility and i actually kind of feel like

you know he definitely hasn't um exonerated himself from like promising a lot of things and then not actually delivering fully on those promises i think that

we do still need to hold all of our politicians accountable no matter how charismatic they are or how well they explain themselves um and obviously you know well maybe not

obviously but from my perspective and yeah obvi i mean i'm reviewing obama's books obviously this is a very political video so

i don't know if you have issues with it like i'm sorry but um but obviously to me uh we ended up with something much worse after obama left but that doesn't

mean we can just excuse um the things that obama and his administration did compromise on and did not and where they failed to meet the expectations of people

um around them and we should still be holding government accountable and i think it actually sets the stage really nicely for um as you start

reflecting on you know like how do we engage with government again now that this whole trump situation is like over and joe biden's going to become president

who is pretty much a continuation of obama-era politics he was instrumental in the obama

administration Engineered many of the policies that became law during that time and now he's going to be our president and he's going to bring in people who advocate in policies that he

believes in and so how do we kind of go back to a situation where we are able to hold government accountable and like not just being happy that it's not

trump but thinking about government in a way where yeah there's going to be compromises that have to be made but we do have to stay true to these ideals

and remember who was the reason that you got elected to office for so i think it's like an interesting book to be reading right before a new president takes office

and kind of sets the stage for okay like i understand that there's all these compromises that have to be made but that doesn't mean i'm going to just

be silent and be just thankful that it's not trump anymore um so i thought that that was kind of a good good catalyst for reflection when it comes to

my future behavior as it relates to abide in administration living in the u.s under a biden and administration the other piece that i just want to talk

about was the tone of the book is really nicely done it kind of just feels like your friend is telling you about his life story he writes in a very accessible way for

those of you who have read dreams of my father or the audacity of hope you probably know that already i actually have not read either's books um i'm about to start dreams of my father

by audiobooks so that'll be interesting um but it wasn't surprising to me because i'd read becoming by michelle obama

and um it's the same kind of tone where it just feels like you're sitting down like over a beer over coffee with a friend and just like chatting with them about their life and

so he has a very accessible way of explaining like the history that led to a certain thing that was happening during his presidency and then talking about his

decision-making process how he factored in the thoughts of advisors and other people and how he engaged with voters and just the american public while making those

decisions and what just like all the things on his mind were that helped him come to the conclusions that he came to and then kind of what the aftermath of those

things were so it definitely feels like a very conversational book so even though it is 700 plus pages long it's not that hard to get through the whole thing

fairly quickly because it's a fairly simple and easy read and and one point that i'd elaborate on and what i just said was he explains history really well

obviously there is a liberal to all the history that's being explained and there is an american tilt to all the history that's being explained um i think he does you know a fair job

and you know he talks about like iran's history and how america has definitely a role to play and why iran is kind of the mess that it's in today

or in much of the middle east actually and he does acknowledge like these were things that america did that were wrong that really screwed up um this part of

the world and created this situation that we have today in a lot of ways so i did appreciate the way that he talks about that but there are

definitely you do have to keep in mind that this is a former american president writing this book so he's definitely not going to hold america as accountable as they probably

should be when thinking about a lot of these world events um but i did think he does a nice job of just kind of talking about the history of why situations are the way they are and

then using that to segue into justification for why he felt the solutions that he advocated for were the best way to

address some of these big problems so anyway that was uh today's review of a promised land by barack obama i am sorry i didn't hold this book up the

whole time because it's it's really heavy so yeah there's that but i mean i would say obviously the pandemic continues to go on a lot of independent bookstores are

struggling amazon is not struggling jeff bezos has made a ton of money during coven 19. so if you can if you're interested in buying this book i would

highly recommend doing so from an independent bookstore,

i have a few recommendations down below of my favorite bookstore so if you happen to live in any of these random cities that i've listed bookstores in you should definitely

check one of them out but i think overall this is a great book and if you're someone who

looked at the obama presidency and was not satisfied with the outcome of it but still look up to obama as an individual then i think this would be a great read for you

but yeah those are my thoughts on a promised land by barack obama definitely let me know if you have any thoughts on what i had to say in the comments below

leave this video a like if you liked it and don't forget to subscribe like i said in my last video i'm going to be uploading a lot more often from

now on so i hope you continue coming back and watching more and more videos on my channel and anyway that's about it that's all i have for today so i will see you next

time have a good one and

bye bye

If you want to buy this book click on blew link.