The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama's Father - Hardcover

Taylor Branch, author of Parting the Waters and The Clinton Tapes "This is a work of genuine discovery. Sally Jacobs portrays the senior Obama with boundless humanity and unflinching candor. Through his fractured family quest, she illuminates both the pitfalls and promise of freedom in a shrinking world. Her biography will enrich our concept of a founding father." John Lonsdale, Emeritus Professor of Modern African History, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom "My favorite injunction to historians-or biographers-comes from the Nigerian playwright and poet Wole Soyinka: 'Leave the dead some room to dance.' The other Barack certainly knew how to dance, literally, intellectually, socially and sexually. Sally Jacobs has wonderfully restored him to life in the contradictory contexts of colonial and independent Kenya, the one exploitative and repressive yet capable of social mobility, the other exciting, full of unprecedented opportunity yet also divisive and chilling in its rivalries. Barack, like Icarus, flew too high. The many women who loved him have borne the burden of his fall. Jacobs brings triumph and tragedy brilliantly together." Martin Meredith, author of The Fate of Africa "Sally Jacobs has pieced together the wayward career of President Obama's African father with skill, verve, and insight, prising out the quirks of fate that led him to the shores of the United States. From interviews with family members, friends, and colleagues, she paints a vivid portrait of a clever, charming, callous, and secretive man, a prolific drinker and philanderer, who squandered the many chances that came his way and died in Kenya in straitened circumstances, the victim of his own inner demons, hardly knowing the son who was to scale the pinnacle of power." The Spectator, July 7, 2011 "I had expected to dip briefly into this tale of hubris, but found myself strangely mesmerized, hooked until the end. With the meticulousness characteristic of a certain breed of American foreign correspondent, Sally Jacobs pulls off an impressive double-hander of her own, painting a detailed portrait of an emerging African nation while tracking the dogged self-destruction of a braggadocio crippled by the conviction of his own superiority." Kirkus, July 15, 2011 "A pioneering, full-scale biography of President Obama's father, a promising but troubled man. Boston Globe reporter Jacobs puts her investigative skills to work in following the elder Obama's trail across continents and years... A thorough study of a subject who is hard to pin down-a welcome, evenhanded addition to the lively literature surrounding President Obama's genealogy." The Daily, July 17, 2011 "Sally Jacobs, a reporter for the Boston Globe, reaffirms and deepens the record, drawing on interviews with the sprawling Obama family and their acquaintances, as well as on memoirs and other historical sources... It provides fascinating clues to understanding the President's puzzle of a father." Tyler Cowen's Marginal Revolution, July 19, 2011 Morozov's 'The Net Delusion' should be read by cockeyed optimists and pessimists alike. It's as important today as McLuhan's books ("The Gutenberg Galaxy," "Understanding Media," "The Medium is the Massage," etc.) were in the 1950s through the 1970s." Mail on Sunday (UK), July 31, 2011 "With admirable endeavour, Sally Jacobs has pieced together the hidden fragments of Obama Snr's life, tracking down family members, friends and colleagues, sifting through official documents and prising out the quirks of fate that led him to Hawaii in the first place." Irish Times, July 30, 2011"[an] intriguing story about the father of the American President...Jacobs tells a fascinating story of a likeable, reckless, talented fool whose dreams of himself far exceeded his ability to realize them." Scotland on Sunday, July 31, 2011 "(The) impressive research work undertaken by Boston Globe journalist Sally Jacobs (is) a worthwhile exercise, and a useful read for those seeking to understand more fully America's first black president."

Barack Obama Sr., 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, yet never held the coveted government job he felt should have been his. He was a polygamist, an alcoholic, and an ardent African nationalist unafraid to tell truth to power at a time when that could get you killed. Father of eight, nurturer of none, he was an unlikely person to father the first African American president of the United States. Yet he was, like that son, a man moved by the dream of a better world. Now, thanks to dozens of exclusive new interviews, prodigious research, and determined investigation, Sally Jacobs tells his full story.