Product Description

The only book commemorating Barack Obama’s historic Inauguration to be licensed by the Presidential Inaugural Committee, Barack Obama: The Official Inaugural Book lavishly documents the entire inaugural week, from Obama’s “Whistle Stop” train ride to Washington to his first days in office. With exclusive access to inaugural events, former White House photographers David Hume Kennerly and Robert McNeely led a team of award-winning photojournalists to capture this historic celebration, from the vast crowd on the Mall to the grandeur of the President and First Lady taking their places on the world’s stage, to the faces of people of all ages and races watching Obama take his oath of office. And for the first time in any official inaugural book, photographs chosen from tens of thousands of online submissions highlight the diverse perspectives of Americans at this important moment in our history.

Commemorating Obama’s presidential innauguration in words as well as images, Barack Obama: The Official Inaugural Book includes a preface by Tom Brokaw: “Barack Obama understood that he was a consipicuous beneficiary of the heroic work of those generational brothers and sisters who marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., in the great nonviolent crusade for equal rights.”  The foreword by U.S. Representative and civil rights leader John Lewis reminds us of the import of that day: “Barack Obama’s inauguration was a day of jubilee . . . It was as if a great weight had been lifted, and we all became aware that maybe, just maybe, we were beginning to lay down the burden of race in America.” In his concluding essay, historian Douglas Brinkley meditates on the global stature of the man “who defied odds makers and transcended race to become the 44th president of the United States.”

The book’s timeless and elegant design juxtaposes spectacular photographs with personal written reflections on this unique celebration from a wide array of political leaders, influential thinkers, and cultural icons, such as Nelson Mandela, legendary musician Graham Nash, Mary J. Blige, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Like the Obama campaign itself, Barack Obama: The Official Inaugural Book is a commemorative edition unlike any other in history.

From the preface by Tom Brokaw:
“It was not in name and background alone that Barack Obama shattered conventional wisdom. . . . He symbolized a new America—more urban and more tolerant, impatient with the paralyzing effect of ideological gridlock, and longing for an authentic voice calling for hope in the face of fear.”

From the foreword by U.S. Representative John Lewis:
“Without the nonviolent resistance to legalized segregation and racial discrimination, without the modern-day Civil Rights movement and the action that took place in Selma, Alabama, in the early 1960s, there would be no Barack Obama. The march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 gave us the Voting Rights Act, and that act liberated not only a people, it freed an entire nation.”

From the essay by Douglas Brinkley:
“Barack Obama’s inauguration stands as the most uplifting public spectacle in contemporary American history since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.”

About the Authors

Tom Brokaw began covering the White House as a correspondent for NBC News in 1973 during the Watergate scandal. He was anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw for almost 25 years, and also served as the anchor of NBC’s Today Show. He has won virtually every major award in broadcast journalism, including a dozen Emmys and two Peabody Awards, and is the author of the bestseller The Greatest Generation.

U.S. Representative John Lewis was elected to Congress in 1986 and has served as U.S. Representative of Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District since then. A leader in the American Civil Rights Movement, Lewis spoke at the 1963 March on Washington, and became nationally known during the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches.

Douglas Brinkley is a professor of history at Rice University. Five of his books have been chosen as New York Times “Notable Books of the Year.” His most recent title—The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast—won the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy prize.

About the Photographers

David Hume Kennerly won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for his photos of the Vietnam War and two years later was appointed President Gerald R. Ford’s personal  White House photographer. American Photo Magazine named him “One of the 100 Most Important People in Photography.” Kennerly has published several books of his work, including Shooter, Photo Op, Photo du  Jour, and Extraordinary Circumstances: The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford.

Robert McNeely bought his ?rst camera while serving in the army in Southeast Asia. He worked as the staff photographer for George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, and was a staff photographer in the Carter White House from 1976 to 1979 and President Bill Clinton’s personal White House photographer from 1992 to 1998, which led to his book The Clinton Years.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #77356 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

About the Author
David Hume Kennerly won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for his photos of the Vietnam War, and two years later was appointed President Gerald R. Ford's personal White House photographer. American Photo Magazine named him "One of the 100 Most Important People in Photography." Kennerly has published several books of his work, including Shooter, Photo Op, and Photo du Jour.

Robert McNeely bought his ?rst camera while serving in the Army in Southeast Asia. He worked as the staff photographer for George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign, and was a staff photographer in the Carter White House from 1976 to 1979 and President Bill Clinton's personal White House photographer from 1992 to 1998, which led to his book The Clinton Years.

Customer Reviews

Masters of intimate moments
Remember when the smart money had it between Hillary and Rudy? Obama's rocket ride to the stratosphere of American politics shocked an anxious, tired nation to its feet. If Americans were not 100 percent behind Obama, they were certainly paying attention on January 20th and 100 percent hopeful that true change was coming. And that attention and hope is what made this particular inauguration so singular. I could not attend and for once I really wanted to be there. Which is why I'm so surprisingly satisfied by the stunning new book, "Barack Obama: The Official Inaugural Book," produced by a crack team of shooters led by the former White House photographers David Hume Kennerly , Bob McNeely and our current White House chronicler Pete Souza.

Masters of finessing intimate, private moments from the most shielded public figures--even while they are in public--the team does not disappoint. I loved seeing the broad grin on a slightly hidden Denzel Washington as he watched the swearing in ceremony, and was moved by the way Michelle Obama keeps her life in balance with her family by taking time for her birthday with her kids. These simple, yet powerful moments by Kennerly and McNeely are more than matched by the photos of David S. Holloway and Andy Issacson capturing the other big story of the day: America's long slow journey toward racial reconciliation. And Pete Souza always rocks my world. I literally got chills looking at his quiet observations of Obama taking stock of his new life; viewing the Kennedy portrait, catching a patch of sun as he contemplates his impossible task ahead.

If you were not there and want to get a very, very good taste of what it was like to witness history, here's your front row ticket to the day that changed America and the world.

An Inspiring and Historic Journey
This is an extraordinary book and as I read through it, it brought tears to my eyes because it is like the inauguration just happened yesterday. The photos and essays in the book are awesome and inspiring! What a defining moment in history to see belief, inspiration, hope, and change in the faces of all who came together to share a common purpose. I appreciate the quality this book has presented.

Beautiful Photos and Moving Essays
I went to the inauguration in DC and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my lifetime. The crowd, people, energy, and hope were all palpable. I wanted to remember this event is as many ways as I could, and so I have purchased a few of these inaugural books. This one is BY FAR THE BEST of the lot. The photos are amazing and the book is really a high quality publication -- not just a quickie production with poor quality printing, etc. The essays literally brought a tear to my eye, and the full text of Obama's speech is in here -- moving as well. This is far and beyond the best from what I have seen in the genre.