Barack Obama

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1961, Barack Obama spent parts of his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia before attending Occidental College and later Columbia University. He worked as a community organizer in Chicago, then studied law at Harvard, where he became the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review.

After returning to Chicago, he taught constitutional law, practiced civil rights law, and served in the Illinois State Senate before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. In 2008 he was elected president of the United States, and in 2012 he won a second term.

Obama is also a widely read author. His best-known books include Dreams from My Father, The Audacity of Hope, and, later, the presidential memoir A Promised Land. Across his writing, readers often find a calm, reflective voice that connects private experience with larger national stories.