Joe Biden cover art

Joe Biden

American Dreamer

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About this listen

Bloomsbury presents Joe Biden by Evan Osnos, read by Evan Osnos and David Remnick.

The new biography of President Joe Biden by National Book Award winner and New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos – A Financial Times, Guardian and Daily Express Book of the Year

'A thoroughly readable primer' Guardian

'Biden has overcome unimaginable tribulation, multiple presidential primary humiliations, a potentially crippling speech impediment and his own mediocrity. Now he carries the hopes of billions upon his shoulders' Sunday Times

President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been called both the luckiest man and the unluckiest – fortunate to have sustained a fifty-year political career that reached the White House, but also marked by deep personal losses that he has suffered.

Yet even as Biden’s life has been shaped by drama, it has also been powered by a willingness, rare at the top ranks of politics, to confront his shortcomings, errors and reversals of fortune. His trials have forged in him a deep empathy for others in hardship – an essential quality as he addresses a nation at its most dire hour in decades.

Blending up-close journalism and broader context, Evan Osnos illuminates Biden’s life and captures the characters and meaning of an extraordinary presidential election. He draws on lengthy interviews with Biden and on revealing conversations with more than a hundred others, including President Barack Obama, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, and a range of progressive activists, advisers, opponents, and Biden family members.

In this nuanced portrait, Biden emerges as flawed, yet resolute, and tempered by the flame of tragedy – a man who just may be uncannily suited for his moment in history.

©2020 Evan Osnos (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Inc.
Politicians Politics & Activism Politics & Government United States World
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I found this to be an interesting and smartly written biography of Joe Biden. Covers all the main aspects of his life and does not shy away from criticism even if overall tone is favourable. Gives the listener a sense of the man and politician but due to brevity it misses the depth of coverage some listeners might be looking for. Overall found it a worthwhile listen

Insightful and accessible short biography

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Evan Osnos reads excellently his own all too short "biography" of President Joe Biden in the run up to the 2020 American Presidential election. It's an unvarnished and fair look at its subject. It doesn't avoid questioning some of Biden's stances or views nor does it cover him in a sycophantic manner. What shines through is the unerring decency of an imperfect man who continues to try to do what he sees and believes to be the right thing. Whether you agree with his politics you come away from this short biography realising the horror of America under Trump brings into even sharper relief the fact that an actual non-psychopathic human being is now presented with the job of cleansing the poison of the last four years. An incisive and poignant portrayal of a thoughtful and kind man.

A worthy President.

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Far from an exhaustive telling of Joe Biden's life or even career, this is an authoritative and incisive portrait of the man as politician and, as such, serves as an excellent guide to how we may expect Biden to behave in exercising the powers, perils and privileges of the presidency.

Distills the personality of Biden

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I'm a fan of Evan Osnos from his writing in the New Yorker, and had already heard the interview with David Remnick that is included inthe book. It is a clear, concise look at the candidate just prior to his election and while it sketches out an enjoyable, comprehensive history of the man, it does feel a little quick, like a stone skipped across water. It is most certainly worth a listen, but I would have preferred a history of Joe Biden that didn't feel quite so much like they needed to get it out before the election happened. Recommended if you want a quick overview of President 46

Enjoyable, clear, too early a release?

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Good to learn more of Joe Biden as a person. He will be good for US and world peace.

Most enlightening.

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