Out Now: Redemption Song (New edition)

In little more than four years, Barack Obama rose from political obscurity to become the forty-fourth president of the United States. His election win in November 2008 was a moment of enormous historical magnitude, greeted with an outpouring of emotion in America and around the world. But, on taking office, Obama also faced a situation of unparalleled crisis, with a financial meltdown threatening the global economy and his country enmeshed in two wars.

Niall Stanage covered every step of Obama’s quest for the presidency, tracking the candidate from appearances in small school halls and draughty theaters to the huge rallies that marked the closing stages of the campaign. Stanage was also the only Irish journalist — and one of a very few foreign reporters — to travel on board Obama’s campaign plane.

Here, through exclusive interviews with some of the new president’s oldest friends and closest advisors, he tells the extraordinary tale of Obama’s journey from community organizer in Chicago to leader of the free world. He explores the then-senator’s long and acrimonious tussle with Hillary Clinton, sheds new light on his battle with John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, and hears from the members of the grassroots movement that carried Obama all the way to the Oval Office.

The best-selling Redemption Song was met with rave reviews upon its initial publication in late 2008. For this new, updated edition, Stanage takes the reader behind the scenes at the Obama White House, evaluating the successes and failures of the new president’s first months in power and mapping the challenges ahead.

Fast-paced, accessible and moving, Redemption Song is an engrossing account of the greatest political story of our time.