Dreams from My Father
Author(s)	Barack Obama
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Memoir
Publisher	Times Books (1995) Three Rivers Press (2004)
Publication date	July 18, 1995 August 10, 2004
Media type	Book
Pages	403 (1995) 442 (2004)
ISBN	1-4000-8277-3
OCLC Number	55534889
Dewey Decimal	973/.0405967625009/0092 B 22
LC Classification	E185.97.O23 A3 2004
Followed by	The Audacity of Hope

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance is a memoir by Barack Obama. It was published in July 1995 as he was preparing to launch his political career in a campaign for an Illinois office,^[1] five years after being elected in 1990 as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review.^[2] It covers the events of his life up until his entry into law school.

Obama's March 2004 U.S. Senate Democratic primary victory in Illinois led to the book's re-publication in August 2004. This followed by two weeks his highly successful July keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention (DNC). Three years later, he would launch his presidential campaign and was elected President of the United States.^[3] The 2004 edition included both a new preface by Obama and his DNC keynote address.^[3]

Narrative [edit]

Habiba Akumu Obama, Barack Obama's paternal grandmother. Photograph is included on the dust jacket of Obama's memoirs "Dreams from My Father". Obama's father, Barack Obama, Sr., is on Habiba's lap

Obama recounts his life up to his enrollment in Harvard Law School. He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Obama, Sr. of Kenya, and Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas, who had met as students at the University of Hawaii. Obama's parents separated in 1963 and divorced in 1964, when he was two. Obama's father went to Harvard to pursue his Ph.D. in economics, but he didn't have the money to take his family with him. After that, he returned to Kenya to fulfill his promise to his nation. Obama formed an image of his absent father from stories told by his mother and her parents. He saw his father only one more time, in 1971, when Obama Sr. came to Hawaii for a month's visit.^[4] The elder Obama died in a car accident in 1982.^[4]

After her divorce, Ann Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, a Javanese surveyor from Indonesia who gained financing for graduate work through the East-West Center. The family moved to Jakarta. When Obama was ten, he returned to Hawaii under the care of his grandparents (and later his mother) for the better educational opportunities available there. He was enrolled in the fifth grade at Punahou School, a private college-preparatory school, where he was one of only six black students at the school.^[5]

Obama attended Punahou School from the 5th grade until his graduation from high school in 1979. Obama writes: "For my grandparents, my admission into Punahou Academy heralded the start of something grand, an elevation in the family status that they took great pains to let everyone know." There he met Ray (Keith Kakugawa), who introduced him to the African-American community.^[6]

Upon finishing high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles, where he enrolled at Occidental College, where he describes living a "party" lifestyle of drug and alcohol use.^[7][8][9] After two years at Occidental, he transferred to Columbia College at Columbia University, in New York City, where he majored in political science.^[9] Upon graduation, he worked for a year in business. He moved to Chicago, where he worked for a non-profit doing community organizing in the Altgeld Gardens housing project on the city's South Side. Obama recounts the difficulty of the experience, as his program faced resistance from entrenched community leaders and apathy on the part of the established bureaucracy. During this period, Obama first visited Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, which became the center of his spiritual life.^[9]

Before attending Harvard Law School, Obama decided to visit relatives in Kenya. He recounts part of this experience in his book's final, emotional scene.

Obama used his memoir to reflect on his personal experiences with race and race relations in the United States.

Book cover [edit]

Pictured in left-hand photograph on cover: Habiba Akumu Hussein and Barack Obama, Sr. (President Obama's paternal grandmother and his father as a young boy, respectively). Pictured in right-hand photograph on cover: Stanley Dunham and Ann Dunham (President Obama's maternal grandfather and his mother as a young girl).^[10]

Persons in the book [edit]

With the exception of family members and a handful of public figures, Barack Obama is open in the preface about using changed names for privacy reasons and created composite characters to expedite the narrative flow.^[11] Some of his acquaintances have publicly admitted their real names, and various researchers have made suggestions as to some figures' real names:

Reception [edit]

In discussing Dreams from My Father, Toni Morrison, a Nobel Laureate writer, has called Obama "a writer in my high esteem" and the book "quite extraordinary." She praised

"his ability to reflect on this extraordinary mesh of experiences that he has had, some familiar and some not, and to really meditate on that the way he does, and to set up scenes in narrative structure, dialogue, conversation—all of these things that you don't often see, obviously, in the routine political memoir biography. ... It's unique. It's his. There are no other ones like that."^[31]

In an interview for The Daily Beast, the author Philip Roth said he had read Dreams from My Father "with great interests," and commented that he had found it "well done and very persuasive and memorable."^[32]

The book "may be the best-written memoir ever produced by an American politician," wrote Time columnist Joe Klein.^[33] In 2008, The Guardian's Rob Woodard wrote that Dreams from My Father "is easily the most honest, daring, and ambitious volume put out by a major US politician in the last 50 years."^[34] Michiko Kakutani, the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for The New York Times, described it as "the most evocative, lyrical and candid autobiography written by a future president."^[35]

The audio book edition earned Obama the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.^[36] Five days before being sworn in as President, Obama secured a $500,000 advance for an abridged version of Dreams from My Father for middle-school-aged children.^[37]

Time Magazine Top 100 List [edit]

In 2011, Time Magazine listed the book on its top 100 non-fiction books written in English since 1923.

Versions [edit]

• New York: Times Books; 1st edition (July 18, 1995); Hardcover: 403 pages; ISBN 0-8129-2343-X
  • This printing is very rare. Only a few signed copies are known, and are estimated to be worth up to $13,000 (depending on condition).^{[citation needed]}
• New York: Kodansha International (August 1996); Paperback: 403 pages; ISBN 1-56836-162-9
• New York: Three Rivers Press; Reprint edition (August 10, 2004); Paperback: 480 pages; ISBN 1-4000-8277-3
• New York: Random House Audio; Abridged edition (May 3, 2005); Audio CD; ISBN 0-7393-2100-5; Includes the senator's speech from the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
• New York: Random House Audio; Abridged edition on Playaway digital audio player ^[38]
• New York: Random House Large Print; 1st Large print edition (April 4, 2006); Hardcover: 720 pages; ISBN 0-7393-2576-0
• New York: Crown Publishers (January 9, 2007); Hardcover: 464 pages; ISBN 0-307-38341-5
• New York: Random House (January 9, 2007); eBook; ISBN 0-307-39412-3
• Melbourne: Text Publishing (2008); Paperback: 442 pages; ISBN 978-1-921351-43-3

Translations

• Arabic: Aḥlām min abī : qiṣṣat ʻirq wa-irth, translated by Hibah Najīb al-Sayyid Maghrabī; Īmān ʻAbd al-Ghanī Najm; Majdī ʻAbd al-Wāḥid ʻInabah, (2009), OCLC 460600393
• Bosnian: Snovi moga oca : priča o rasi i naslijeđu, Sarajevo : Buybook (2008), OCLC 488621036
• Chinese: The Dream Road of Obama : Yi Fu Chih Ming, translated by Yao-Hui Wang, Kuan-Lan Shih China Times Publishing Company, Taipei, Taiwan, (2008), ISBN 978-957-13-4926-8
• Croatian: Snovi mojega oca : priča o rasi i naslijeđu, (2004), ISBN 978-953-182-079-0
• Czech: Cesta za sny mého otce : jedna z nejpůsobivějších autobiografických knih o sebepoznání a hledání vlastní identity, translated by Marie Čermáková, Praha : Štrob, Širc & Slovák, (2009), ISBN 978-80-903947-6-6
• Danish: Arven fra min far : selvbiografi, Gyldendals Bogklubber, (2009), OCLC 488375191
• Dutch: Dromen van mijn vader, translated by Joost Zwart, Atlas, (2007), ISBN 978-90-450-0089-3
• Finnish: Unelmia isältäni : kertomus rodusta ja sukuperinnöstä,translated by Seppo Raudaskoski and Mika Tiirinen, (2009), ISBN 978-951-692-723-0
• French: Les rêves de mon père, translated by Paris Presses de La Cité, Paris, France, (2008), ISBN 978-2-258-07597-9
• German: Ein amerikanischer Traum, Carl Hanser Verlag (2008), ISBN 978-3-446-23021-7
• Greek, Modern: Eikones tou patera mou : he historia henos genous kai mias klēronomias, (2004), ISBN 978-960-6689-41-3
• Hebrew: חלומות מאבי (Ḥalomot me-avi), translated by Edna Shemesh, Tel Aviv, Israel, (2008), OCLC 256955212
• Hindi: Pitā se mile sapane, translated by Aśoka Kumāra, Aravinda Kumāra Pabliśarsa, Guṛagām̐va,(2009), ISBN 978-81-8452-017-0
• Indonesian: Dreams from My father : pergulatan hidup Obama, (2009), ISBN 978-979-433-544-4
• Japanese: My Dream: An autobiography of Barack Obama (マイ・ドリーム: バラク・オバマ自伝^?), translated by Yuya Kiuchi, Mikiko Shirakura, (2007) ISBN 978-4-478-00362-6
• Korean: Nae abŏji robutŏ ŭi kkum, translated by Kyŏng-sik Yi, Random House Korea, Seoul, Korea, (2007), ISBN 978-89-255-1014-9
• Marathi: Ḍrīmsa phrôma māya phādara, translated by Yamājī Mālakara and Nītā Kulakarṇī, Ameya Prakāśana, (2009), OCLC 515543205
• Persian: Rūyā hā yi pidaram, translated by Rītū Baḥrī, (2009), ISBN 978-964-174-082-7
• Persian: Rūyā hā yi pidaram, translated by Manīzhih Shaykh Javādī, (2009), ISBN 978-600-5253-09-2
• Polish: Odziedziczone marzenia, translated by Piotr Szymczak, (2008), ISBN 978-83-7278-333-2
• Serbian: Snovi moga oca : priča o rasi i nasleđu, translated by Vesna Džuverović; Jasna Simonović, (2008),ISBN 978-86-505-1029-2
• Spanish: Los sueños de mi padre : una historia de raza y herencia, Vintage Español, New York City, New York, (2009), ISBN 978-0-307-47387-5
• Spanish: Los sueños de mi padre : una historia de raza y herencia, translated by Fernando Miranda; Evaristo Páez Rasmussen, Granada : Almed, (2008), ISBN 978-84-936685-0-1
• Swedish: Min far hade en dröm, Albert Bonniers förlag (2008), ISBN 978-91-0-011728-3
• Thai: Bārak ʻŌbāmā : phom likhit chiwit ʻēng,translated by Nopphadon Wētsawat, Krung Thēp : Samnakphim Matichon, (2008), ISBN 978-974-02-0139-7
• Turkish: Babamdan hayaller : [ırk ve kimlik mirasının öyküsü], İstanbul : Pegasus Yayınlar (2008), ISBN 978-605-5943-32-5
• Urdu: Obāmā kī āp bītī, translated by Yāsar Javvād, (2009), OCLC 421024762
• Vietnamese: Những giấc mơ từ cha tôi, translated by Quang Nguyễn, (2008), OCLC 317713059

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• All editions at WorldCat
• Amazon.com's book reviews and description
• Barnes & Noble's editorial reviews and overview
• OnTheIssues.org's book review and excerpts

v t e Barack Obama 44th President of the United States (2009–present) U.S. Senator from Illinois (2005–2008) Illinois Senator from the 13th district (1997–2004) Born (1961-08-04)August 4, 1961 Life and politics Early life and career Illinois Senate elections Illinois Senate career Illinois 1st congressional district election, 2000 2004 Democratic National Convention U.S. Senate election in Illinois, 2004 U.S. Senate career 2008 presidential primary campaign Obama–Biden 2008 Endorsements Electoral history Political positions Economic Energy Foreign / Administration foreign policy Social Nobel Peace Prize 2012 presidential re-election campaign Endorsements West Wing Week Presidency Transition Office of the President-Elect 2009 Inauguration 2013 Inauguration First 100 days Timeline 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Foreign policy Obama Doctrine Health care reform Judiciary Supreme Court candidates Pardons Presidential trips 2009 2010 2011 2012 International reactions to 2012 election Books Dreams from My Father The Audacity of Hope Of Thee I Sing Speeches "The Audacity of Hope" (2004) "A More Perfect Union" (2008) "Change Has Come to America" (2008) "A New Birth of Freedom" (2009) Joint session of Congress (February 2009) "A New Beginning" (2009) Joint session of Congress (health care reform) (September 2009) State of the Union address 2010 2011 2012 2013 Tucson memorial speech (2011) Joint session of Congress (jobs) (2011) Family Michelle Obama (spouse) Ann Dunham (mother) Barack Obama, Sr. (father) Lolo Soetoro (step-father) Maya Soetoro-Ng (half-sister) Stanley Armour Dunham (grandfather) Madelyn Dunham (grandmother) Marian Shields Robinson (mother-in-law) Craig Robinson (brother-in-law) Bo (family dog)   Public image News and political events Oprah Winfrey's endorsement Citizenship conspiracy theories litigation legislation Religion conspiracy theories Bill Ayers controversy Jeremiah Wright controversy Republican and conservative support (2008) Assassination threats against Barack Obama 2008 assassination scare in Denver 2008 assassination scare in Tennessee First inauguration invitations Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial Citizen's Briefing Book Tea Party protests New Energy for America Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Gates-Crowley Rose Garden meeting Resignation of Shirley Sherrod Books about Self-authored Dreams from My Father The Audacity of Hope Obama: From Promise to Power Barack Obama – Der schwarze Kennedy The Case Against Barack Obama The Obama Nation Culture of Corruption Catastrophe Barack and Michelle The Speech The Obama Story Game Change Music Obama Girl "I Got a Crush... on Obama" "Barack the Magic Negro" will.i.am "Yes We Can" "We Are the Ones" "There's No One as Irish as Barack O'Bama" "Sí Se Puede Cambiar" "My President" "Deadheads for Obama" "Air and Simple Gifts" Change Is Now Hope! – Das Obama Musical Film By the People: The Election of Barack Obama (2009) 2016: Obama's America (2012) The Road We've Traveled (2012) Miscellaneous Obama Day (Kenya) Namesakes ← George W. Bush Book Category Commons Portal