Renegades

President Obama: As it did for many people, the year 2020 stirred up a whole lot of emotions in me. For three years, I d witnessed a country that seemed to be getting angrier and more divided with each passing day. Then came a historic pandemic, along with a slipshod government response that rained hardship and loss on millions and forced all of us to consider what s really important in life. How did we get here? How could we find our way back to a more unifying American story?

That topic came to dominate so many of my conversations last year with Michelle, with my daughters, and with friends. And one of the friends was Mr. Bruce Springsteen. On the surface, Bruce and I don t have a lot in common. He s a white guy from a small town in Jersey. I m a Black guy of mixed race born in Hawaii with a childhood that took me around the world. He s a rock n roll icon. I m . . . not as cool. And, as I like to remind Bruce every chance I get, he s more than a decade older than me. Though he looks damn good. But over the years, what we ve found is that we ve got a shared sensibility. About work, about family, and about America. In our own ways, Bruce and I have been on parallel journeys trying to understand this country that s given us both so much. Trying to chronicle the stories of its people. Looking for a way to connect our own individual searches for meaning and truth and community with the larger story of America.

And what we discovered during these conversations was that we still share a fundamental belief in the American ideal. Not as an airbrushed, cheap fiction or as an act of nostalgia that ignores all the ways that we ve fallen short of that ideal, but as a compass for the hard work that lies before each of us as citizens to make this place and the world more equal, more just, and more free. Plus, Bruce just had some great stories. So we added a participant to our conversations: a microphone. And over the course of a few days at the converted farmhouse

Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen

Renegades: Born in the USA is human, vulnerable, smart, and passionate. . . . Obama and Springsteen admire their country while considering its shortcomings and still come out the other side with a sense of patriotism and hope that spills over the bounds of a book. Associated Press
 
A collection of intimate and thoughtful conversations between the president and the Boss. Los Angeles Times
 
Do you dream of scoring an invitation to Springsteen s Colts Neck compound? Maybe strumming on those guitars, riding horses, riffing on the American experiment in the recording studio? Unless you re an American president, you re going to have to get in line. But in between daydreams, pick up Renegades. It s the closest thing to being a fly on the wall of an incredible friendship. Esquire
 
A candid, revealing, and entertaining dialogue . . . poignant and honest, with a dash of good humor. The Aquarian
 
Fascinating and supremely entertaining. Booklist
 
A very personal, very intimate project. NJArts