Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Transformed America

New York Magazine columnist Chait (The Big Con: Crackpot Economics and the Fleecing of America) presents a concise but well-reasoned analysis of President Obama’s record in office that could persuade open-minded readers that he succeeded in reshaping “the economy, health care, energy, finance, and education in quantifiable ways.” Chapter by chapter, Chait presents Obama’s policy objectives and his record in achieving them, sometimes by clever maneuvers that enabled him to advance goals such as reducing global warming without the support of an intractable Republican opposition, which often opposed policies it had previously supported. Bernie Sanders supporters who find Obama, and Hillary Clinton, too centrist, may be chastened by Chait’s clever review of how previous Democratic presidents now held up as paragons of liberalism were viewed quite differently in their own time by those on the left. The timing of the book’s publication will ultimately determine its impact, as a Trump presidency would represent a repudiation by the voters of almost all Obama has stood for, and thus undermine Chait’s thesis that Obama was a transformational figure. Agent: Ross Yoon Agency. (Jan.)

This review has been corrected. A previous version listed the wrong agency for the book.