The World as It IsRecommendations

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER.

A startling behind-the-scenes story of Barack Obama's presidency—and how idealism can withstand harsh reality—comes from one of his most loyal aides.

Ben Rhodes worked in the heart of the Obama administration for over 10 years, first as a speechwriter, then as deputy national security advisor, and last as a multifunctional assistant and close collaborator. He began each day in the Oval Office with the President's Daily Briefing, travelled the world with Obama, and was at the center of some of the presidency's most important and contentious moments. Now he relates the complete tale of his collaboration—and, eventually, friendship—with a man who also happened to be a historic US president.

This is not your normal White House book, and Rhodes was not your typical presidential confidant. This is a rare look inside the most poignant, tense, and consequential moments of the Obama presidency—waiting out the bin Laden raid in the Situation Room, responding to the Arab Spring, reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran, leading secret negotiations with the Cuban government to normalize relations, and confronting the resurgence of nationalism and nativism that culminated in the election of Donald Trump—rendered in vivid, novelistic detail by someone who was a writer before he was a staffer.

From the early days of Obama's campaign to the concluding hours of his administration, Rhodes demonstrates what it was like to be there in The World as It Is. It's a narrative with Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Hillary Clinton, Bob Gates, and, most importantly, Barack Obama, who comes to life on the page in times of enormous intensity and surprising closeness. This is the most vivid depiction of Obama's worldview and presidency to date, as well as a chronicle of a political education by a gifted writer and a crucial record of the forces that influenced the previous decade.