We Are the Change We Seek

The Speeches of Barack Obama

E.J. Dionne, Joy-Ann Reid

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Year: 2017
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• eBook ISBN:
  9781635570922
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: Politics & International Relations

A collection of Barack Obama's greatest speeches, now including his farewell address, selected and introduced by columnist E.J. Dionne and MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid.

"It is a political partisan's dream to see them [Obama's words] so finely gathered here." - Washington Post

We Are the Change We Seek is a collection of Barack Obama's 27 greatest addresses: beginning with his 2002 speech opposing the Iraq War and closing with his emotional farewell address in Chicago in January 2017. As president, Obama's words had the power to move the country, and often the world, as few presidents before him. Whether acting as Commander in Chief or Consoler in Chief, Obama adopted a unique rhetorical style that could simultaneously speak to the national mood and change the course of public events. Obama's eloquence, both written and spoken, propelled him to national prominence and ultimately made it possible for the son of a Kenyan man and a white woman from Kansas to become the first black president of the United States.

These speeches span Obama's career--from his time in state government through to the end of his tenure as president--and the issues most important to our time: war, inequality, race relations, gun violence and human rights. The book opens with an essay placing Obama's oratorical contributions within the flow of American history by E.J. Dionne Jr., columnist and author of Why The Right Went Wrong, and Joy Reid, the host of AM Joy on MSNBC and author of Fracture.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Dedication
• By the Same Authors
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction: “Let Us March”
• “What I Am Opposed to Is a Dumb War”
• “The Audacity of Hope”
• “How Far We’ve Come”
• “We Cannot Abandon the Field of Religious Discourse”
• “What’s Next for America?”
• “Yes, We Can”
• “A More Perfect Union”
• “Change Happens”
• “This Is Your Victory”
• “A New Era of Responsibility”
• “Open Hearts. Open Minds. Fair-minded Words.”
• “A New Beginning”
• “The Happy Warrior”
• “A Just and Lasting Peace”
• “Justice Has Been Done”
• “I Am Here to Say They Are Wrong”
• “Newtown, You Are Not Alone”
• “We, the People…”
• “Now We Need to Finish the Job”
• “Trayvon Martin … Could Have Been My Son”
• “Put on Love”
• “For We Were Born of Change”
• “Amazing Grace”
• “A World That Is Worthy of Our Children”
• “You See, Change Requires More Than Righteous Anger”
• “We Must Go Forward”
• “What Our Democracy Demands”
• Acknowledgments
• A Note on the Editors
• Index
• Copyright