The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

2004年7月，歐巴馬參議員在美國民主黨全國黨代表大會上，以「無畏的希望」為題發表二十分鐘的演說，從此在民主黨的聲勢扶搖直上。本書即是以那篇演講為架構，再就政治生態、教育、保健、反恐戰爭等議題，發表論述。歐巴馬在《無畏的希望》中，揭示了他以改變、信任、與希望為根基的政治理念。呼籲新一代的美國人團結，以化解政治分歧。

本書脫胎自選戰過程中，歐巴馬與他人的交談。「與選民的邂逅，不僅證實美國人民有根本的善良，他們還提醒，美國經驗的核心當中，有一組理想，一直在激勵我們的集體良心；儘管我們有差異，還是共有一套價值，讓我們凝聚在一起；有股綿延不絕的希望，讓我們幾乎不可能的民主實驗奏效下去。」書中他談及家人、參議院同僚乃至於總統的種種故事，他還寫到菜鳥參議員如何上手；怎樣在服務大眾又兼顧家庭生活的種種需求中，找到平衡；自己對宗教的信仰日益虔誠；本書筆調親密得驚人，又有謙抑的幽默。

本中文書介出自《歐巴馬勇往直前》商周出版出版

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Barack Obama’s lucid vision of America’s place in the world and call for a new kind of politics that builds upon our shared understandings as Americans, based on his years in the Senate
 
“In our lowdown, dispiriting era, Obama’s talent for proposing humane, sensible solutions with uplifting, elegant prose does fill one with hope.”—Michael Kazin, The Washington Post
 
In July 2004, four years before his presidency, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. One phrase in particular anchored itself in listeners’ minds, a reminder that for all the discord and struggle to be found in our history as a nation, we have always been guided by a dogged optimism in the future, or what Obama called “the audacity of hope.”

The Audacity of Hope is Barack Obama’s call for a different brand of politics—a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the “endless clash of armies” we see in congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of “our improbable experiment in democracy.” He explores those forces—from the fear of losing to the perpetual need to raise money to the power of the media—that can stifle even the best-intentioned politician. He also writes, with surprising intimacy and self-deprecating humor, about settling in as a senator, seeking to balance the demands of public service and family life, and his own deepening religious commitment.

At the heart of this book is Barack Obama’s vision of how we can move beyond our divisions to tackle concrete problems. He examines the growing economic insecurity of American families, the racial and religious tensions within the body politic, and the transnational threats—from terrorism to pandemic—that gather beyond our shores. And he grapples with the role that faith plays in a democracy—where it is vital and where it must never intrude. Underlying his stories is a vigorous search for connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful political consensus.

Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, Obama says, can Americans repair a political process that is broken, and restore to working order a government that has fallen dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans. Those Americans are out there, he writes—“waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them.”