Barack Obama

Born in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, on August 4, 1961, Barack Obama was raised in Hawaiʻi and Indonesia before studying at Occidental College, Columbia University, and Harvard Law School. At Harvard, he became the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review, an early sign of the national attention he would later attract.

Before entering the White House, he worked as a community organizer in Chicago, taught constitutional law, and served in the Illinois State Senate and the U.S. Senate. In 2008 he was elected the 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the office, and he served two terms from 2009 to 2017.

As a writer, he is known for books including Dreams from My Father, The Audacity of Hope, and, later, A Promised Land. His work often blends personal history with questions about citizenship, democracy, and what it means to build a more generous public life.