Includes index

For nearly ten years, Ben Rhodes saw almost everything that happened at the center of the Obama administration, first as a speechwriter, then as deputy national security advisor, and finally as a multipurpose aide and close collaborator. He started every morning in the Oval Office with the President's Daily Briefing, traveled the world with Obama, and was at the center of some of the most consequential and controversial moments of the presidency. Now he tells the full story of his partnership--and, ultimately, friendship--with a man who also happened to be a historic president of the United States. Rhodes shows what it was like to be there from the early days of the Obama campaign to the final hours of the presidency. It is a story populated by such characters as Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Hillary Clinton, Bob Gates, and--above all--Barack Obama, who comes to life on the page in moments of great urgency and disarming intimacy. This is the most vivid portrayal yet of Obama's worldview and presidency, a chronicle of a political education and an essential record of the forces that shaped the last decade

Prologue -- Part 1. Hope : 2007-2010. In the beginning ; Talk to Iran, get Bin Laden ; A community of fate ; The President is on board the aircraft ; Cairo ; Obama's war ; War and a peace prize ; The end of the beginning -- Part 2. Spring : 2011-2012. Egypt : the transition must begin now ; Libya ; Bin Laden : life inside a secret ; Gathering clouds ; Reaction and action ; Life, death, and Benghazi ; A second term ; Young men wage war, old men make peace -- Part 3. Change : 2013-2014. Clenched fists ; Red line ; Becoming a right-wing villain ; Race, Mandela, and Castro ; Russians and intervention ; Divine intervention ; Permanent war ; New beginnings -- Part 4. What makes America great : 2015-2017. Tapping the brakes ; The antiwar room ; Bombs and children ; Havana ; The stories people tell about you ; The stories we tell ; Information wars ; The end