The Other Barack

The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama's Father

By Sally H. Jacobs

Hardcover ◦ E-Book

Public Affairs: July 12, 2011

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 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.

Praise

“Jacobs, a reporter for the Boston Globe, has far outstretched all previous journalists in unearthing an impressive array of new information about Obama’s life… The Other Barack greatly enriches our knowledge of the elder Obama’s life.”
— David J. Garrow, Washington Post
“Sally Jacobs … 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
“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

After Words

Sally Jacobs speaks with veteran White House reporter Kenneth Walsh about The Other Barack.

C-Span BookTV, June 30, 2011