Ben Rhodes Bücher

Acht Jahre lang sah Ben Rhodes fast alles, was im Herzen von Barack Obamas Präsidentschaft passierte. In seinem rasant geschriebenen, aufrichtigen, klugen Buch berichtet er, was hinter den Kulissen wirklich geschah. Es ist die Erzählung von einem Ausnahmepolitiker, dessen Idealismus die Welt im Sturm eroberte, auf die Härten der Realität stieß, sich anpassen musste - und trotzdem überlebte. Mit 29 Jahren und einem Sack voll Hoffnung stößt Ben Rhodes 2007 zum Team von Barack Obama und wird zu einem seiner engsten Vertrauten. Er ist mittendrin, als das Atomabkommen mit dem Iran ausgehandelt wird, als die Annäherung an Kuba eingeleitet wird, als die Entscheidung fällt, in Syrien nicht zu intervenieren, und als die Wahl von Donald Trump das Projekt Obama jäh beendet. Ben Rhodes schildert grandios die Dramen dieser Präsidentschaft, die Konflikte, in die Obama geriet, und die Grenzen des Machbaren, auf die er traf - selten hat man einen so intimen, luziden Einblick in die inneren Gesetze der Politik bekommen. Wir sehen Barack Obama aus nächster Nähe, mit seiner großen Persönlichkeit, seinem scharfen Verstand, seinen Träumen und Zweifeln, seinem Charisma und Charme. Ein einzigartiges Zeitdokument und ein Lehrstück darüber, was in der Politik möglich ist.

Ben Rhodes, who served Barack Obama as a foreign policy adviser and speechwriter from beginning to end, has written a book that reflects the president he served-intelligent, amiable, compelling and principled. And there is something more: The World as It Is is a classic coming-of-age story, about the journey from idealism to realism, told with candor and immediacy. It is not a heavy policy book. There are anecdotes galore, but they illuminate rather than scandalize. Even Donald Trump-a politician who seems the omega to Obama's alpha-is treated with horrified amazement rather than vitriol. . . . Ben Rhodes is a charming and humble guide through an unprecedented presidency. . . . He never quite loses his idealism; in a crass political era, he impressively avoids becoming a cynic. . . . His achievement is rare for a political memoir: He has written a humane and honorable book.-Joe Klein, The New York Times Book Review In The World as It Is, Rhodes shows no trace of the disillusionment that gave George Stephanopoulos's tale of Bill Clinton its bitter, gossipy flavor, or of the light irony that came to inflect Peggy Noonan's adoration of Ronald Reagan. More than any other White House memoirist, Rhodes is a creature of the man he served. . . . This is the closest view of Obama we're likely to get until he publishes his own memoir.-George Packer, The New Yorker The World as It Is offers a peek into Mr. Obama's tightly sealed inner sanctum from the perspective of one of the few people who saw him up close through all eight years of his presidency. Few moments shook Mr. Obama more than the decision by voters to replace him with a candidate who had questioned his very birth.-Peter Baker, The New York Times The World As It Is opens and closes with Obama's reaction to the election of Donald Trump. In between, it recounts world events in a newsy, intimate chronology.-Karl Vick, Time For insight on that Obama playbook, it makes sense to consult Ben Rhodes's fine new memoir of the Obama years. . . . Rhodes was 'in the room' for almost every foreign policy decision of significance that Obama made during his eight years in office and in a privileged position to chronicle how the idealism of the early Obama administration faded as it confronted the realities of an often-Hobbesian world.-Peter Bergen, CNN Ben Rhodes is one of the most brilliant minds and powerful storytellers I've ever known. In The World as It Is, he doesn't just bring you inside the room for the key moments of Obama's presidency, he captivates you with the journey of an idealistic young staffer who becomes the president's close friend and advisor-a journey that both cynics and believers will find riveting and hopeful.-Jon Favreau The World as It Is is a page-turning, unfiltered, altogether human look at Barack Obama's presidency. Ben Rhodes-one of Obama's closest and most important advisors-opens up the defining issues of the presidency, from the role of race and the rise of conspiracy theories to the hunt for bin Laden, the Syria 'red line' debate, and the secret negotiations Ben himself led to normalize ties with Cuba. Insightful, funny, and moving, this is a beautifully observed, essential record of what it was like to be there.-Samantha Power

Why is democracy so threatened in America and around the world? And what can we do about it? A former White House aide and close confidante to President Barack Obama -- and New York Times bestselling author of The World as It Is -- travels the globe in a deeply personal, beautifully observed quest for answers. In 2017, as Ben Rhodes was helping Barack Obama begin his next chapter, the legacy they worked to build for eight years was being taken apart. To understand what was happening in America, Rhodes decided to look outward. Over the next three years, he traveled to dozens of countries, meeting with politicians, activists, and dissidents confronting the same nationalism and authoritarianism that was tearing America apart. Along the way, a Russian opposition leader he spends time with is poisoned, the Hong Kong protesters he comes to know see their movement snuffed out, and America itself reaches the precipice of losing democracy before giving itself a second chance. Equal parts memoir and reporting, After the Fall is a hugely ambitious and essential work of discovery. Throughout, Rhodes comes to realize how much America's fingerprints are on a world we helped to shape: through the excesses of our post-Cold War embrace of unbridled capitalism, post-9/11 nationalism and militarism, mania for technology and social media, and the racism that shaped the backlash to the Obama presidency. At the same time, he learns from a diverse set of characters - from Obama to rebels to a rising generation of leaders - how looking squarely at where America has gone wrong only makes it more essential to fight for what America is supposed to be at home - for our own country, and the entire world.