The Inaugural Address, 2009: Together with Abraham Lincoln's First and Second Inaugural Addresses and The Gettysburg Address and Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance - Hardcover

Obama, Barack

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0143116428 ISBN 13: 9780143116424

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2009

Synopsis

Celebrate the inauguration of America's 44th president with this New York Times bestseller

Tying into the official theme for the 2009 inaugural ceremony, "A New Birth of Freedom" from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Penguin presents a keepsake edition commemorating the inauguration of President Barack Obama with words of the two great thinkers and writers who have helped shape him politically, philosophically, and personally: Abraham Lincoln and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Having Lincoln and Emerson's most influential, memorable, and eloquent words along with Obama's historic inaugural address will be a gift of inspiration for every American for generations to come.

About this title

About the Author

Barack Obama was inaugurated as the forty-fourth president of the United States on January 20, 2009.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From The Inaugural Address, 2009 by Barack Obama:

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted —for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk takers, the doers, the makers of things —some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor—who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

From The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln:

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

From “Self-Reliance”by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Let us affront and reprimand the smooth mediocrity and squalid contentment of the times, and hurl in the face of custom and trade and office, the fact which is the upshot of all history, that there is a great responsible Thinker and Actor working wherever a man works; that a true man belongs to no other time or place, but is the centre of things. Where he is, there is nature. He measures you and all men and all events. Ordinarily, every body in society reminds us of somewhat else, or of some other person. Character, reality, reminds you of nothing else; it takes place of the whole creation.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0143116428
• ISBN 13: 9780143116424
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 112