The lightning ascent of the Democrat Barack Obama in the role of the first black candidate for the presidency is certainly the most dramatic political event in the current history of the United States of America.Today, he is the man that embodies the highest hopes of millions of people, not only electors: blacks and whites, young and old, rich and poor, progressives and conservatives in a unanimous slancio that hasn’t been seen since the time of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy. His very particular personal history is the great American dream come true, the concretization of aspiring to a profound moral, political and social renewal.David Mendell, a long-time columnist of the Chicago Tribune, has followed every moment of Obama’s career step by step, gaining the young senator’s trust and respect, and thus benefiting from a privileged observation point in respect to any other commentator. From Obama’s infancy in Hawaii and Indonesia to his beginnings as a political organizer in Chicago, from his nomination as senator to his nomination as the Democratic candidate for the presidency, passing through his triumphal official trip to Africa in 2006: chapter after chapter, the steps of Barack Obama’s private and public life add up to an impartial, accurate biography with a wealth of information, the most authoritative written yet. In the tradition of the best American journalism, Mendell ignores «politicalspeak» and lets the sources speak for themselves in exclusive interviews – the most trusted collaborators but also Obama’s political adversaries, his friends, his family, with the charismatic Michelle in the foreground, and Obama himself– analyzing with great clarity and in every aspect the «Obama phenomenon». A complete portrayal of the man and the politician that also allows the Italian public to understand the changes in US history and the authentic reality of one of its most surprising protagonists.