A History of the United States in 15 Speeches

From 2009 to 2017, Ben Rhodes served as Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama overseeing the Administration’s national security communications, speechwriting, public diplomacy and global engagement programming. 
 
Prior to joining the Obama Administration, from 2007-2008 Rhodes was a senior speech-writer and foreign policy advisor to the Obama campaign. Before joining then Senator Obama’s campaign, he worked for former Congressman Lee Hamilton from 2002-2007. He was the co-author, with Tom Keen and Lee Hamilton, of Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission. 
 
A native New Yorker, Rhodes has a B.A. from Rice University and an M.F.A. from New York University.

A vital account of fifteen speeches and orators – from Benjamin Franklin to Barack Obama – that tells the story of the United States as a battle over what it means to be an American, from a New York Times bestselling author and former presidential speechwriter 
 
What does it mean to be an American? Since the Founding, Americans have been having an intense debate over this deceptively simple question which has spawned Constitutional crises, civil war, populism, mass migrations, reform movements – and their inevitable backlash. The history of this debate over who and what makes an American, Ben Rhodes argues, is essential to understanding how the United States has evolved as a nation and the intensity of their divisions today. 
 
In this book, Rhodes tells the story of fifteen essential speeches – some famous, some obscure - that, together, offer a fresh and revealing portrait of the United States as an ongoing contest over what it means to be American. With rare insight into the power and purpose of political rhetoric, Rhodes illuminates how each speech reflects the nature of American identity at a particular historical moment, with riveting portraits of the people, movements, and social conditions that produced pivotal oratory. Rhode also establishes the unique role of speaking as an act of American political persuasion – from Franklin’s case for compromise at the Constitutional convention to Alexander Stephen’s case for white supremacy as the cornerstone of the Confederacy; or, in social movements, from Martin Luther King’s demand for racial equality at the march on Washington, to Pat Buchanan’s 'culture war' speech to the 1992 Republican convention which foreshadowed Donald Trump. For a country that values individualism, self-invention, and mass media, Rhodes reminds us that speeches have occupied an out-sized space in the American national imagination: the lone voice before a crowd, bending history to its will. 
 
At a time when what it means to be an American is a matter of intense debate and division, Ben Rhodes offers rare insight into the gap between who we say we are, and who we want to be.

Ben Rhodes

Ben’s one of the few who’ve been with me since that first presidential campaign. His memoir is one of the most compelling stories I’ve seen about what it’s actually like to serve the American people for eight years in the White House

Ben Rhodes … has written a book that reflects the president he served — intelligent, amiable, compelling and principled … a classic coming-of-age story, about the journey from idealism to realism, told with candor and immediacy … There are anecdotes galore, but they illuminate rather than scandalize … Ben Rhodes is a charming and humble guide through an unprecedented presidency … As a result, his achievement is rare for a political memoir: He has written a humane and honorable book

Vivid, lucid, enjoyable ... A compelling account of life in the Obama White House

A page-turning, unfiltered, altogether human look at Barack Obama’s presidency. Ben Rhodes — one of Obama’s closest and most important advisers — opens up the defining issues of the presidency: from the role of race and the rise of conspiracy theories to the hunt for bin Laden, the Syria “red line” debate, and the secret negotiations Ben himself led to normalize ties with Cuba. Insightful, funny, and moving, this is a beautifully observed, essential record of what it was like to be there.

Samantha Power, Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations

This stylish, beautifully writtenpolitical memoir reminds us that the local and the universal are intimately braided. Ben Rhodes steps into the river of history and charts a course through some of the most significant and alarming landscapes of our times. In this meditation on story-telling and power, Rhodes helps make sense of the bewildering times we currently inhabit. Alongside President Obama, he shakes us out of the ruts of ordinary perception and manages to find hope in the face of most available evidence.

Colum McCann, author of Let The Great World Spin

Ben Rhodes is one of the most brilliant minds and powerful storytellers I’ve ever known. In The World As It Is, he doesn’t just bring you inside the room for the key moments of Obama’s presidency, he captivates you with the journey of an idealistic young staffer who becomes the President’s close friend and advisor – a journey that both cynics and believers will find riveting and hopeful.

Jon Favreau, former Director of Speechwriting for President Obama

More than any other White House memoirist, Rhodes is a creature of the man he served

This is that rare beast, an engaging and wonderfully written book on foreign policy

[Ben Rhodes’s] achievement is rare for a political memoir: he has written a humane and honourable book

Part of the charm of Rhode’s story is that he doesn’t try to hide the extent to which this was largely about his own crisis of identity. The book is engagingly honest in its self-centredness… Rhodes understands the anomalousness of his own situation

Rhodes explores some of the darker elements of speechwriting… [and shows] communications is often a battle between a two-dimensional and a three-dimensional view-point

Inside the Obama White House

‘One of the most compelling stories I’ve seen about what it’s actually like to serve the American people’ BARACK OBAMA 
 
 
 A revelatory, behind-the-scenes account of the Obama presidency and a political memoir about the power of words to change our world 
 
 
 This is a book about two people making the most important decisions in the world. One is Barack Obama. The other is Ben Rhodes. 
 
 A young writer and Washington outsider, Rhodes was plucked from obscurity aged 29. For nearly ten years, he was at the centre of the Obama Administration – first as a speech-writer, then a policy maker, and finally a close collaborator. 
 
 Here, Rhodes tells the full story of his partnership – and, ultimately, friendship – with a historic president. From the early days of the Obama campaign to the final hours in the Oval Office, he puts us in the room at the most tense and poignant moments in recent history. 
 
 ‘Vivid, lucid, enjoyable… A compelling account of life in the Obama White House’ 
 Justin Webb, The Times 
 
 ‘A stylish, beautifully written political memoir’ 
 Colum McCann

Ben Rhodes

Praise for The World As It Is

Ben’s one of the few who’ve been with me since that first presidential campaign. His memoir is one of the most compelling stories I’ve seen about what it’s actually like to serve the American people for eight years ...

Ben Rhodes … has written a book that reflects the president he served — intelligent, amiable, compelling and principled … a classic coming-of-age story, about the journey from idealism to realism, t ...

Vivid, lucid, enjoyable ... A compelling account of life in the Obama White House

Ben’s one of the few who’ve been with me since that first presidential campaign. His memoir is one of the most compelling stories I’ve seen about what it’s actually like to serve the American people for eight years ...

Ben Rhodes … has written a book that reflects the president he served — intelligent, amiable, compelling and principled … a classic coming-of-age story, about the journey from idealism to realism, t ...

Vivid, lucid, enjoyable ... A compelling account of life in the Obama White House

Ben’s one of the few who’ve been with me since that first presidential campaign. His memoir is one of the most compelling stories I’ve seen about what it’s actually like to serve the American people for eight years ...

Ben Rhodes … has written a book that reflects the president he served — intelligent, amiable, compelling and principled … a classic coming-of-age story, about the journey from idealism to realism, t ...

Vivid, lucid, enjoyable ... A compelling account of life in the Obama White House

Books by Ben Rhodes

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