Michelle obama biography peter slevin

Richly detailed and written with elan, a powerfully inspiring story: the first comprehensive account of the life and times of arguably the most unlikely first lady in the nation's history, an African American descended from slaves and of less-than-privileged background. Born January 17, less than six months after Martin Luther King Jr.'s March onWashington--Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama was raised on the South Side ofChicago, where her father (who would later succumb to MS) was a city water-plant worker and her mother, a secretary for Spiegel catalog. Through dogged reporting and with a deft touch, Peter Slevin brilliantly traces Michelle's life: from the conventionalities and intricacies of her family to her high school years; from her graduation from Princeton University and Harvard Law School during the charged racial atmosphere of the late s and early '80s engendered by affirmative action to her stint as a corporate lawyer at Sidley & Austin in Chi

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Peter Slevin tackles the biography of First Lady Michelle Obama

June 29,

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Editor’s Note: Anyone who writes about politics and politicians knows how difficult it is to bring fresh insight to familiar issues and personalities. That utmaning is even greater if your subject is the most well-known woman in the United States, First Lady Michelle Obama. In this installment of “Writing the Book,” an sporadisk Storyboard feature in which journalists turned authors discuss their work, former Washington Post reporter Peter Slevin examines how he looked beyond the two-dimensional narrative to find meaningful ämne for his biography, “Michelle Obama: A Life.” The book was just named one of the year’s 10 best biographies by Booklist and you can read recent reviews here and here. 

As inom set out five years ago to write a biography of one of the most recognizable women on the planet, the first question was why

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Michelle Obama biographer Peter Slevin on reporting A Life

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Peter Slevin, author of the recently-published biography, Michelle Obama: A Life, didn&#;t want to write &#;a first lady book, a Washington book or a book that was centered on politics alone,&#; he told me. While covering Barack Obama&#;s first presidential campaign for The Washington Post (he was the Post&#;s last Chicago bureau chief), Slevin was captivated watching the future first lady in action.

&#;The more I followed Michelle, and the more I learned of her high-profile work in Chicago, the more I thought she should be at the center of her own narrative, not just wife of the more famous Barack Obama,&#; said Slevin, now an associate professor at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. &#;I set out to do an ambitious biography that tracked her experiences and her parents&#; Chicago history,