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    Believer: My Forty Years in Politics
    Unavailable
    Believer: My Forty Years in Politics
    Unavailable
    Believer: My Forty Years in Politics
    Audiobook19 hours

    Believer: My Forty Years in Politics

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    4.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The great strategist who masterminded Obama's historic election campaigns opens up about his years as a young journalist, political consultant, and ultimately senior adviser to the president.

    The man behind some of the greatest political changes of the last decade, David Axelrod has devoted a lifetime to questioning political certainties and daring to bring fresh thinking into the political landscape. Whether as a child hearing John F. Kennedy stump in New York or as a strategist guiding the first African American to the White House, Axelrod shows in Believer how his own life stands at the center of the tumultuous American century.

    Believer begins in the inimitable world of 1960s New York, but rapidly moves west. As a young newspaperman in the Chicago of the 1970s and 1980s, Axelrod reported on the dissolution of the last of the big city political machines, along with the emergence of a black, independent movement that made Obama's ascent possible. Seeing the golden age of Chicago journalism collapse, Axelrod switched careers to become a political strategist, working for pathbreakers like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and morally conflicted characters like John Edwards. For better and worse, Axelrod helped to redefine the techniques by which modern political campaigns are run.

    The heart of Believer is devoted to Axelrod's 20-year friendship with Obama, a warm partnership that inspired both men even as it propelled each to great heights. As senior adviser to the president, Axelrod served during one of the most challenging periods in national history and worked at Obama's side as he battled an economic disaster, navigated America through two wars, and fought to reform health care, the financial sector, and our grid-locked political institutions.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 10, 2015
    ISBN9780698154551
    Unavailable
    Believer: My Forty Years in Politics

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    Reviews for Believer

    4.5/5

    34 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed reading about David Axelrod and his years in politics. I also loved revisiting the thrill we felt when Obama won the election to the Presidency, and then went on to be re-elected, too. There was a great deal of optimism and hope in those days, and we do not seem to see enough of those feelings today.
    • 5/5
      Ring side view of one of the greatest campaigns ever!
    • 5/5
      Believer is a unabridged look at the world of politics and passion, shared by someone who followed his heart and his mind and has shared both with us brilliantly.
    • 4/5
      David Axelrod has written a paean to his favorite politician, Barack Obama. The book is also a memoir of a gifted political insider. Although the title, Believer, would imply that Axelrod has some “higher” motivation underpinning his career as a political strategist, he hasn’t always found the most worthy role models for whom to apply his skills; at one time he conducted the election campaigns of the notorious Rod Blagojevich, the former (and currently imprisoned) governor of Illinois, known for mediocrity as well as for a tendency toward graft. Nonetheless, Axelrod contends that in Barack Obama he found a worthy focus for his efforts, believing Obama’s objectives to be praiseworthy. Axelrod began working with Obama in 2002, and quickly became Obama’s éminence grise, the principal architect of the strategies that helped Obama get elected first to the U.S. Senate, and then twice to the nation’s highest office, despite the fact that Obama had very little prior experience that prepared him for the work ahead. Axelrod hoped in part that he would feel energized and inspired by Obama’s optimism and idealism; after working in Chicago politics for so long, Axelrod felt cynical. Unfortunately, once Obama got into office, it seemed (and still does seem) as if the Republications were determined to defeat every initiative of Obama’s no matter its merits. But beyond reproaching the Republicans and pointing out that Obama inherited major problems when he took over the Oval Office, Axelrod doesn’t offer much analysis about what happened to most of the hopes that were more characteristic of the confident candidate than the oft-stymied President.About half of the book is devoted to Axelrod’s personal history, which is also interesting, especially for a look at the path one might take to become an important counselor to the movers and shakers of the world. Axelrod studied politics at the University of Chicago, and then wrote a political column for the Chicago Tribune. But he realized he didn’t want just to write about the political process; he wanted to be a part of it.He founded a political consulting firm, and got the job of running the re-election campaign of Chicago's first African-American mayor, Harold Washington. The expertise he gained in building cross-racial coalitions would eventually lead to his successful campaign management of the nation’s first black president. And it is that story, more than just Axelrod’s own, that is the most compelling.Evaluation: Axelrod seems affable, unaffected, and still wide-eyed, in spite of his fear of having been made jaded by Chicago politics. He isn’t totally uncritical of Obama, but is definitely supportive of him and what he has tried to accomplish. Most importantly, Axelrod has been an insider during a pivotal moment in American history, and thus has a very engaging story to tell.As a side note, Axelrod continues to push for higher ends through the nonpartisan Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago that he founded in 2012. His stated mission is "to ignite in young people a passion for politics and public service." We have attended a number of his programs [most of them being open to the public], in which prominent speakers discuss current events and political life, generally in an interactive format. It is truly inspirational to observe the idealism and enthusiasm with which participants engage in the exchange of ideas. Axelrod is continuing to make a difference, and is providing many others with opportunities to learn to make a difference as well.(JAB)

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