King, Obama, Springsteen and Seeger
Pete Seeger, 89, and Bruce Springsteen feeding the crowd the lines to Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" at the We Are One inaugural concert in Washington, D.C., yesterday. (Mandel ngan/afp/getty images). More photos from the boston.com and NPR.
From Books, New President Found Voice
By MICHIKO KAKUTANI NYTimes January 19, 2009
Much has been made of Mr. Obama’s eloquence — his ability to use words in his speeches to persuade and uplift and inspire. But his appreciation of the magic of language and his ardent love of reading have not only endowed him with a rare ability to communicate his ideas to millions of Americans while contextualizing complex ideas about race and religion, they have also shaped his sense of who he is and his apprehension of the world.
Some of President-elect Barack Obama’s favored reading matter as mentioned in this article:
- The Bible
- “Parting the Waters,” Taylor Branch
- “Self-Reliance,” Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Gandhi’s autobiography
- “Team of Rivals,” Doris Kearns Goodwin
- “The Golden Notebook,” Doris Lessing
- Lincoln’s collected writings
- “Moby-Dick,” Herman Melville
- “Song of Solomon,” Toni Morrison
- Works of Reinhold Niebuhr
- “Gilead,” Marilynne Robinson
- Shakespeare’s tragedies
From Emmett Till to Barack Obama - The civil rights movement culminates in the election of America's first black president.