"Home Squared": Barack Obama's Transnational Self-Reliance

One of the most important aspects of Barack Obama's political success concerns the transnational makeup of his identity. Taking Dreams from My Father (1995) and The Audacity of Hope (2006) as case studies, this article examines how Obama's autobiographical self squares with the precepts of American exceptionalism in an era that has witnessed a palpable decline in the centrality and leverage of the US on an international stage.