Before i ask a question, i want to show you a video. I mustve had six or seven biographies written about me. Exciting upnot that until i was president. Have these amazing experiences. I did not really accomplish all that much when i was in high school or in college. Folks think around and they are looking for stuff. Then they try to dramatize things that are kind of routine. There is a part of you that says why would you care about this, it is not that interesting. How right is he. Once you choose to run for president of the United States and succeed, your biography is a major part of american history. Had a mucha actually more interesting, much more richly varied earlier life then we have really to a large extent known up until now. People are aware he grew up in hawaii. But the really transformative period of baracks life in his mid20s came when he was living in chicago for the first time, 1985 to 1988, working as a Community Organizer on the far south side, his first immersion in an
For those of you in the east and central time zones 7488201 in the mountain and pacific and if you cant get through on the phone lines and want to make a comment. Facebook. Com you will see right youll see right there at the top of some video you can go ahead and post a comment right underneath it and also email booktv at cspan. Org. You can make a comment there as well and finally you can also text a message if you would like to. This isnt for calling. 20,271,791,684 and if you would just include the first name and your town so we can know that much about you before we get started. David maraniss. In your book. [inaudible] guest every life is random. Maybe more random a chance meeting of the student at the university of hawaii who moved there because of the russian language class theres so many different aspects of what caused those people to that place and the fact that it really was a romance that didnt last. The point of this book and the story is really to show how much of a produ
I was nervous because i am the panthers fan and there was an onscreen teeing lombardy in this battle skid they had to do and all of a sudden there was a commercial. I was not really focused but i saw a freeway sign that said detroit and i got my attention and the pocket of backbeat of music and all the symbols of between, joe louis downtown, the diego rivera murals, incredible murals in evoking the manufacturing sculpture, the spirit of deflate downtown and a black sedan driving a couple woodward avenue, the main thoreau fare of detroit, and c. Eminem in the car. I am not an eminem guy. I am now but wasnt then. I love the music that was playing in the background, but he gets out of this restored theater in downtown detroit and walks down the aisle and there was a gospel choir. This is the motor city, and it got to me some way. What detroit meant to me. And my earliest strongest memories of that city, and that commercial, set me on the path to thinking about what do i do . How can i hon
We actually went to a little Catholic School for 2. 5 years. And his father got another job working for union oil. Was africa after that . It was very controversial. There are people that were very upset. Obama won in a landslide. But everywhere in the world, there is some controversy about any politician. So there are some questions about it. But not everyone understands. What was his lifelike in jakarta . Guest he is perfectly immersed. Imagine a sixyearold child being immersed in the culture. Sort of a lower middle class action. The exotic smells of jakarta. His father riding a motorbike to his job. His mother was there as well. That was his wife, life, he adapted. He had to adapt. But he did the best he could. Host why did he leave jakarta in 1971 . Guest his mother couldnt afford to send them there. Those 3. 5 years, he is in indonesia, immersed in the language. The mother is waking up at 4 00 a. M. To teach him with english schoolbooks to supplement his learning. It is very diffi
Tunisia kenya hawaii new york and chicago. David maraniss spoke with relatives of president of president obama in kenya and discover the president african ancestral history. He toured toured the houses were Young Barack Obama lived in indonesia and found the kansas family home where his mothers family began. And for the next few hours David Maraniss joint booktv joined booktv to discuss his latest book barack obama the story. We will take your calls emails andta tweets. Host David Maraniss you write in barack obama theth story that no life couldve been more the product ofs randomness than that of baracks obama. Guest is the whole world coming together accidentally in honolulu hawaii. A father whos destined to come there from kenya because he readsb a story in the saturday evening posted describes thesci university of hawaii is a great place because ofun its diversity and a mother who gets there because she has a father who ha this wanderlust and is nevernv satisfied wherever he he is i