Chait's brilliant new book, Audacity, upends the conventional wisdom of the Washington commentariat
and a surprising number of liberals
that Barack Obama's presidency was little more than eight years of disappointment...setting out a compelling case that he was one of the most successful presidents of modern times.
The Guardian A timely, trenchant and relentlessly argued ... Read morebook presenting the 44th president in terms that he himself would approve. Not only did Obama change America for the better, Chait writes, he also cemented a new policy infrastructure that will resist Trump's efforts to tear it down.
New York Times Sunday Book Review Audacity, by Jonathan Chait of New York magazine, one of today's must-read political journalists...documents the scale of Obama's domestic policy, on health care, taxes, finance, climate, civil rights and education. Chait also explains why [Obama's successes] won't simply disappear... The book is a brave one.
David Leonhardt, New York Times Op-Ed columnist Chait offers a well-organized, clearly written case that will be valuable to future historians in their assessments.
Kirkus Reviews [Chait] lacerates wimpish liberals and the duplicitous cynics on the right. He points out, over and over again, that, ideologically speaking, Obama's policies were largely derived from a liberal Republican tradition.
Brooklyn Rail Chait's command of policy and politics, and his clarity of thought, guarantee that Audacity will remain an essential starting point for those assessing the Obama presidency.
Washington Monthly [Chait is] one of the most influential political journalists of our time...the verve with which he pursues his quarries has made him one of our great polemicists.
New Republic Audacity is a sturdy defense of the past eight years and an attack on left-wing Americans who moan about Obama's timidity. And in this endeavor it is a rip-roaring success. Chait tells the Obama story with enormous sympathy, but with enough detachment to make it credible.
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