《obamas, the》是2011年2月Random House US出版的圖書，作者是Peter Firstbrook.
基本介紹
- 書名：obamas, the
- 作者：Peter Firstbrook
- 出版社：Random House US
- ISBN：9780307591401
內容簡介
"Fascinating...adds many interesting details to what we knowof the President’s heritage." --David Remnick, TheNewYorker.com
On January 20, 2009, a few hundred men, women, and childrengathered under trees in the twilight at K’obama, a village on theshores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya. Barack Obama’s rise tothe American presidency had captivated people around the world, butmembers of this gathering took a special pride in the swearing inof America’s first black president, for they were all Obamas, allthe president’s direct African family.
In the first in-depth history of the Obama family, PeterFirstbrook recounts a journey that starts in a mud hut by the WhiteNile and ends seven centuries later in the White House.Interweaving oral history and tribal lore, interviews with Obamafamily members and other Kenyans, the writings of Kenyanhistorians, and original genealogical research, Firstbrook sets thefascinating story of the president’s family against the backgroundof Kenya’s rich culture and complex history.
He tells the story of farmers and fishermen, of healers andhunters, of families lost and found, establishing for the firsttime the early ancestry of the Obamas. From the tribe’s cradlelandin southern Sudan, he follows the family generation by generation,tracing the paths of the famous Luo warriors—Obama’s directancestors—and vividly illuminating Luo politics, society, andtraditions.
Firstbrook also brings to life the impact of English colonizationin Africa through the eyes of President Obama’s grandfatherOnyango. An ambitious and disciplined man who fought in two worldwars, witnessed the bloody Mau Mau insurrection, and saw hiscountry gain independence from white rule, Onyango was alsohot-tempered and autocratic: family lore has it that PresidentObama’s grandmother abandoned the family after Onyango attempted tomurder her. And Firstbrook delves into the troubled life of Obama’sfather, a promising young man whose aspirations were stymied bypost-independence tribal politics and a rash tendency towardself-destruction—two factors that his family believes contributedto his death in 1982. They say it was no accident, as described inthe president’s memoirs, but rather a politically motivated hitjob.
More than a tale of love and war, hardship and hard-won success,The Obamas reveals a family history—epic in scope yet intimate infeel—that is truly without precedent.
