The end of the world as they knew it: Chicago's far South Side, March 1980 -- July 1985 -- A place in the world: Honolulu, Seattle, Honolulu, Jakarta, and Honolulu, August 1961 -- September 1979 -- Searching for home: Eagle Rock, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Hermitage, PA, September 1979 -- July 1985 -- Transformation and identity: Roseland, Hyde Park, and Kenya: August 1985 -- August 1988 -- Emergence and achievement: Harvard Law School, September 1988 -- May 1991 -- Building a future: Chicago, June 1991 -- August 1995 -- Into the Arena: Chicago and Springfield, September 1995 -- September 1999 -- Failure and recovery: Chicago and Springfield, October 1999 -- January 2003 -- Calculation, coincidence, coronation: Illinois and Boston, January 2003 -- November 2004 -- Disappointment and destiny: the U.S. Senate, November 2004 -- February 2007 -- Epilogue: the President did not attend, as he was golfing.

Rising Star is the definitive account of Barack Obama's formative years that made him the man who became the forty-fourth president of the United States. Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention instantly catapulted him into the national spotlight and led to his election four years later as America's first African-American president. In this biography, David J. Garrow creates a rich tapestry of a life little understood, until now. Garrow describes Obama's tumultuous upbringing as a young black man attending an almost-all-white, elite private school in Honolulu while being raised almost exclusively by his white grandparents. After recounting Obama's college years in California and New York, Garrow charts Obama's time as a Chicago community organizer, working in some of the city's roughest neighborhoods; his years at the top of his Harvard Law School class; and his return to Chicago, where Obama honed his skills as a hard-knuckled politician, first in the state legislature and then as a candidate for the United States Senate. Detailing a behind-the-scenes account of Obama's 2004 speech, a moment that labeled him the Democratic Party's "rising star," Garrow also chronicles Obama's four years in the Senate, weighing his stands on various issues against positions he had taken years earlier, and recounts his thrilling run for the White House in 2008. In Rising Star, David J. Garrow has created a portrait that reveals not only the people and forces that shaped the future president but also the ways in which he used those influences to serve his larger aspirations. This is about a young man born into uncommon family circumstances, whose faith in his own talents came face-to-face with fantastic ambitions and a desire to do good in the world.