David J. Garrow Libros

Details the alarming abuse of power by the FBI in its intense surveillance of the civil-rights leader and Nobel laureate, following the FBI's campaign from fear of communist influence to anonymous personal threats

This biography provides a definitive account of Barack Obama's life before his presidency, exploring the formative years, influential figures, and forces that shaped him into an extraordinary leader. Following his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Obama quickly rose from a little-known Illinois state senator to the U.S. Senate, and eventually became America's first black president. David J. Garrow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, delivers a comprehensive portrait that rivals the depth of Robert Caro's work. The narrative spans the globe, tracing Obama's journey from his tumultuous childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia to his impactful role as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side. It highlights his time at Harvard Law School, where he excelled, and his return to Chicago to pursue his political ambitions. Drawing from over 1,000 interviews and extensive documentary research, Garrow reveals the ambition, dreams, and human struggles of this iconic figure. This meticulously detailed biography promises to be a groundbreaking account of Obama's pre-presidential life, likely to remain a key reference for years to come.

In this 1987 Pulitzer Prize winner, David J. Garrow, through extensive interviews, and access to F.B.I. transcripts, delves deeply into both Dr. Martin Luther King's leadership role and his private life. He attributes King's moral and physical courage to his religious faith: King believed that he had literally been called to do the Lord's work. But from 1965, when the F.B.I. taped King in sexual encounters and sent the tape to S.C.L.L. headquarters, his associates noted a "spiritual depression", even a "death wish." Fear that exposure would ruin his public work dogged him until his assassination in 1968. While documenting the F.B.I.'s dirty tricks, Garrow never loses sight of King's achievement and vision, nor of the poignancy of King's belief that "the cross is something that you bear and ultimately that you die on."