Contact: Dawn Sakamoto (808) 534-7170 or dawn (at) bookshawaii.net
The Dream Begins: How Hawai‘i Shaped Barack Obama
New Book Delves into Obama’s Years in Hawai‘i
Born and raised in the most multicultural state in the union, United States presidential candidate Barack Obama bears the indelible stamp of his native Hawai‘i. Watermark Publishing of Honolulu, Hawai‘i, has released The Dream Begins: How Hawai‘i Shaped Barack Obama, a coming-of-age story set in Hawai‘i’s storied “melting pot”—a revealing look at what makes Obama tick.
Authored by veteran political writers Stu Glauberman and Jerry Burris, this 152-page book examines Obama’s early years in Hawai‘i. The self-described “skinny kid with the funny name” flourished in the Islands, where local values foster tolerance, compromise and mutual respect—and where diversity defines people rather than divides them. The social mores of the Aloha State and the experience of growing up in an island culture have had a deep and lasting influence on the candidate. Obama himself has noted, “What’s best in me, and what’s best in my message, is consistent with the tradition of Hawai‘i.”
Glauberman and Burris offer concise lessons in Hawai‘i history to help the reader understand its racial and social climate, and how such an environment could impact a young man like Obama. For, as his wife, Michelle Obama, has said, “You can’t really understand Barack until you understand Hawai‘i.” Interviews with Obama’s Punahou School classmates and teachers, as well as others who knew the Senator in his youth, add a personal dimension to the narrative. Obama’s paternal and maternal family history and his years in Indonesia are also thoroughly covered.
During his career as a journalist with The Honolulu Advertiser and Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Stu Glauberman covered many beats including education, politics, business and Hawaiian affairs. He has traveled widely and also reported from Asia. Jerry Burris is Hawai‘i’s foremost political analyst, having reported and commented on politics for readers of The Honolulu Advertiser and Honolulu television viewers for more than 30 years.
The Dream Begins: How Hawai‘i Shaped Barack Obama (ISBN 978-0-9815086-8-9) will be available in September priced at $17.95 at bookstores and other retail outlets, from online booksellers, or direct from the publisher at www.bookshawaii.net. Contact Watermark Publishing, 1088 Bishop St., Suite 310, Honolulu, HI 96813; telephone (808) 587-7766; toll-free (866) 900-BOOK; fax (808) 521-3461; e-mail sales@bookshawaii.net.
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