David Mendell, a native of Cincinnati, is the author of Obama: From Promise to Power, (HarperCollins/Amistad). A staff writer for the Chicago Tribune, he began writing about urban issues and politics in 1998. Over his nine-year tenure at the Tribune, Mendell has covered breaking national news, including the Columbine High School shootings and the Seattle riots spurred by meetings of the World Trade Organization.

REVIEWS

“Mendell tracks Obama's rise through the rough-and-tumble world of Chicago politics to the rarefied, if no less brutal, world of the U.S. Senate. Mendell draws on interviews with Obama, his wife, family, friends, aides, and rivals, as well as his own extensive coverage since Obama's days in the Illinois Senate, to offer a nuanced, compelling look at a man of idealism and ambition intent on making history.” —Booklist (starred review)