Barack Obama: Invisible Man

Literary Nonfiction. African & African American Studies. History & Politics. BARACK OBAMA: INVISIBLE MAN is a provocative examination of President Barack Obama and his legacy. Masciotra contends that most Americans, frightened over the loss of white authority, were unable to deal with the historical, racial, and political implications of electing the first black president. The right distorted Obama into a monster, while many on the left set him up to fail with unrealistic expectations. The man who emerges from the ashes of caricature is not only an accomplished—if flawed—president, but a cultural figure of profound importance who challenged America's increasingly anti- intellectual anxiety with a stirring and subversive message of hope.

David Masciotra is an author, lecturer, and cultural critic. He is the author of Mellencamp: American Troubadour (University Press of Kentucky) and Metallica (Bloomsbury), and Working On a Dream: The Progressive Political Vision of Bruce Springsteen (Continuum). Masciotra writes for Salon, AlterNet, The Daily Beast, The Atlantic, Washington Post, Blurt, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, and covers politics for Truthout, Indianapolis Star, and Fusion. He teaches literature and political science at the University of St. Francis.