New York Times Book Review
“A stout defense--indeed, the best I have read--of the Obama
years."
A New York Times Bestseller
David Axelrod has always been a believer. Whether as a young
journalist investigating city corruption, a campaign consultant
guiding underdog candidates against entrenched orthodoxy, or as
senior adviser to the president during one of the worst crises in
American history, Axelrod held fast to his faith in the power of
stories to unite diverse communities and ignite transformative
political change. Now this legendary strategist, the mastermind
behind Barack Obama’s historic election campaigns, shares a
wealth of stories from his forty-year journey through the inner
workings of American democracy. Believer is the tale of a
political life well lived, of a man who never gave up on the
deepest promises our country has to offer.
Believer reveals the roots of Axelrod’s devotion to politics and
his faith in democratic change. As a child of the ’60s in New
York City, Axelrod worked his first campaigns during a tumultuous
decade that began with soaring optimism and ended in violence and
chaos. As a young newspaperman in Chicago during the 1970s and
’80s, Axelrod witnessed another world transformed when he
reported on the dissolution of the last of the big city political
machines—Richard Daley, Dan Rostenkowski, and Harold
Washington—along with the emergence of a dynamic black
independent movement that ultimately made Obama’s ascent
possible.
After cutting his teeth in the rollicking world of Chicago
journalism, Axelrod switched careers to become a political
strategist. His unorthodox tactics during his first campaign
helped him get Paul Simon unexpectedly elected to the Senate, and
soon Axelrod’s counsel was sought by the greatest lights of the
Democratic Party. Working for path breakers like Hillary Clinton,
Deval Patrick, and Rahm Emanuel—and morally conflicted characters
like Rod Blagojevich and John Edwards—Axelrod, for better and
worse, redefined the techniques by which modern political
campaigns are run.
The heart of Believer is Axelrod’s twenty-year friendship with
Barack Obama, a warm partnership that inspired both men even as
it propelled each to great heights. Taking a chance on an
unlikely candidate for the U.S. Senate, Axelrod ultimately
collaborated closely with Obama on his political campaigns, and
served as the invaluable strategist who contributed to the
tremendous victories of 2008 and 2012. Sw careers again,
Axelrod served as senior adviser to the president during one of
the most challenging periods in national history: working at
Obama’s side as he battled an economic disaster; navigated
America through two wars; and fought to reform care, the
financial sector, and our gridlocked political institutions. In
Believer, Axelrod offers a deeper and richer profile of this
extraordinary figure—who in just four years vaulted from the
Illinois State Senate to the Oval Office—from the perspective of
one who was at his side every step of the way.
Spanning forty years that include corruption and transformation,
turmoil and progress, Believer takes readers behind the closed
doors of politics even as it offers a thrilling call to
democratic action. Axelrod’s Believer is a powerful and inspiring
memoir enlivened by the charm and candor of one of the greatest
political strategists in recent American history.
DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, author of The Bully Pulpit and Team of
Rivals
“Beautifully written with warmth, humor, and remarkable
self-awareness, Believer is one of the finest political memoirs I
have ever read.”