I was a graduate student at the University of Chicago, working on a Ph.D. and living in Hyde Park when the events in this book took place. As someone who lived through them as one of Obama's constituents, I picked up this book out of curiosity. Four hours later, I had finished it. It's a truly excellent account of Obama's time in Chicago: engagingly written, knowledgeable, and never ponderous despite the author's obvious expertise. Anyone interested in learning more about Obama's career in Chicago, or just looking for a great example of how to cover politics, should read this book.
The book covers Obama's career in Chicago as a community organizer on the far south side to his election as senator (his time at Harvard is not discussed). McClelland's basic argument is that Chicago's demographics gave the black community real political power, a power exemplified by the election of Harold Washington as mayor of the city. At the same time, this power was based on a history of identity politics which limited the ability of black politicians to reach state- and nation-wide audiences. Obama, he argues, was black enough to galvanize Chicago's local political scene, but white enough to engage a broader white audience. It was this unique mix, in Chicago's unique location, that allowed Obama to rise to national audience.
McClelland's book is written in wiry prose full of tough-guy verse. Candidates do not lose races, they are unhorsed. Staff writers from the New Yorker are not prominent journalists, they are bigfoot pencils. Lavish homes in Kenwood are Edwardian piles professors blow their Nobel Prize loot on. The pacing is equally bracing: McClelland does a superb job filling you in on the history of Chicago politics (and, incidentally, provides a wonderful miniature sketch of the butternut portions of southern Illinois) but never drowns you in unnecessary detail. As a result the story -- which is good in and of itself -- is briskly told.
It also seems fairly told. McClelland is a Chicago-based journalist and the book is an expanded version of his past political coverage. It is judicious and restrained in its judgment of Chicago's politicos, but never pulls its punches or pretends at objectivity. McClelland candidly describes how off-putting Obama could be at times, and also how beguiling he could be as he matured as a politician. McClelland's portrait of Obama as a young man fits closely with that story told by other authors such as Richard Wolffe: a genuine idealist who is also (somehow) a shrewd pragmatist willing to seize opportunities and cultivate (and discard) alliances as needed. The presentation is both balanced and intimate, and those are two hard things to combine.
Reading this book helped me better understand the political events I lived through, and gave me a great deal more respect for the job reporters do. Young Mr. Obama is a terrific blow-by-blow account of political contestation, and the fact that it's central figure eventually became president is just icing on the cake. Strongly recommended.
