A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
An Esquire Best Book of 2017
Remember when presidents spoke in complete sentences instead of in unhinged tweets? Former Obama speechwriter David Litt does. In his comic, coming-of-age memoir, he takes us back to the Obama years – and charts a path forward in the age of Trump. 
More than any other presidency, Barack Obama’s eight years in the White House were defined by young people – twenty-somethings who didn’t have much experience in politics (or anything else, for that matter), yet suddenly found themselves in the most high-stakes office building on earth. David Litt was one of those twenty-somethings. After graduating from college in 2008, he went straight to the Obama campaign. In 2011, he became one of the youngest White House speechwriters in history. Until leaving the White House in 2016, he wrote on topics from healthcare to climate change to criminal justice reform. As President Obama’s go-to comedy writer, he also took the lead on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the so-called “State of the Union of jokes.”
Now, in this refreshingly honest memoir, Litt brings us inside Obamaworld. With a humorists’ eye for detail, he describes what it’s like to accidentally trigger an international incident or nearly set a president’s hair aflame. He answers questions you never knew you had: Which White House men’s room is the classiest? What do you do when the commander in chief gets your name wrong? Where should you never, under any circumstances, change clothes on Air Force One? With nearly a decade of stories to tell, Litt makes clear that politics is completely, hopelessly absurd. 
But it’s also important. For all the moments of chaos, frustration, and yes, disillusionment, Litt remains a believer in the words that first drew him to the Obama campaign: “People who love this country can change it.” In telling his own story, Litt sheds fresh light on his former boss’s legacy. And he argues that, despite the current political climate, the politics championed by Barack Obama will outlive the presidency of Donald Trump. 
Full of hilarious stories and told in a truly original voice, Thanks, Obama is an exciting debut about what it means – personally, professionally, and politically – to grow up.

Thanks, Obama: A Humorous Memoir of the Obama Years, Speechwriting, and Navigating Politics in the Age of Trump

Biographies & Memoirs

Litt, David

Historical

Ecco

Bill Bryson meets Thomas Frank in this deeply insightful, unexpectedly hilarious story of how politicians hijacked American democracy and how we can take it back The democracy you live in today is different--completely different--from the democracy you were born into. You probably don't realize just how radically your republic has been altered during your lifetime. Yet more than any policy issue, political trend, or even Donald Trump himself, our redesigned system of government is responsible for the peril America faces today. What explains the gap between what We, the People want and what our elected leaders do How can we fix our politics before it's too late And how can we truly understand the state of our democracy without wanting to crawl under a rock That's what former Obama speechwriter David Litt set out to answer. Poking into forgotten corners of history, translating political science into plain English, and traveling the country to meet experts and activists, Litt explains how the world's greatest experiment in democracy went awry.&nbsp; (He also tries to crash a party at Mitch McConnell's former frat house. It goes poorly.) The result of Litt's journey is something you might not have thought possible: a page-turner about the political process. You'll meet the Supreme Court justice charged with murder, learn how James Madison's college roommate broke the Senate, encounter a citrus thief who embodies what's wrong with our elections, and join Belle the bill as she tries to become a law (a quest far more harrowing than the one in Schoolhouse Rock!). Yet despite his clear-eyed assessment of the dangers we face, Litt remains audaciously optimistic. He offers a to-do list of bold yet achievable changes--a blueprint for restoring the balance of power in America before it's too late.

Democracy in One Book or Less: How It Works, Why It Doesn't, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Bill Bryson meets Thomas Frank in this deeply insightful, unexpectedly hilarious story of how politicians hijacked American democracy and how we can take it back 
The democracy you live in today is different—completely different—from the democracy you were born into. You probably don't realize just how radically your republic has been altered during your lifetime. Yet more than any policy issue, political trend, or even Donald Trump himself, our redesigned system of government is responsible for the peril America faces today. 
What explains the gap between what We, the People want and what our elected leaders do? How can we fix our politics before it's too late? And how can we truly understand the state of our democracy without wanting to crawl under a rock? That's what former Obama speechwriter David Litt set out to answer. 
Poking into forgotten corners of history, translating political science into plain English, and traveling the country to meet experts and activists, Litt explains how the world’s greatest experiment in democracy went awry. 
(He also tries to crash a party at Mitch McConnell’s former frat house. It goes poorly.)\nThe result of Litt's journey is something you might not have thought possible: a page-turner about the political process. You'll meet the Supreme Court justice charged with murder, learn how James Madison's college roommate broke the Senate, encounter a citrus thief who embodies what's wrong with our elections, and join Belle the bill as she tries to become a law (a quest far more harrowing than the one in Schoolhouse Rock!). 
Yet despite his clear-eyed assessment of the dangers we face, Litt remains audaciously optimistic. He offers a to-do list of bold yet achievable changes—a blueprint for restoring the balance of power in America before it's too late.

Democracy in One Book or Less: How It Works, Why It Doesn't, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think (Paperback or Softback)

EccoPress

Harper Large Print

The fourth edition of this book has been updated to cover essential developments in American law. Since the third edition, the Supreme Court has changed course on abortion and its approach to freedom of religion. It has also rebuffed government attempts to limit the possession of guns. The new edition reflects these decisions, while presenting the fundamental rules, court cases, concepts, and trends of key subjects in American law in a narrative that is tailored to the reader who may not have an American legal background. Each chapter offers streamlined versions of illustrative cases, summarizes the leading doctrines, analyzes trends, highlights areas of contemporary debate, raises questions for further discussion, and lists important vocabulary. The book allows students from anywhere to learn American law through cases, as American lawyers do, but also provides the context they may need to make sense of the opinions. 
This book is ideal for those who want to understand the contemporary American legal system at more than a superficial level, but who are not currently studying to become American lawyers. The style, organization, and content make it useful for a variety of readers: those planning to enter law school, legal assistants, students of American law outside the United States, LL.M. students from other countries, American undergraduates taking a course in American law in a pre-law program, and graduate-level students in areas impacted by American law.

An Introduction to American Law

Aronson, Bruce

Rosen, Dan

Law Practice

Carolina Academic Press

The third edition of this book has been updated to cover essential developments in American law. Some areas, such as same-sex marriage, have changed dramatically since the second edition. The fundamental rules, court cases, concepts, and trends of key subjects in American law are presented in a narrative that is tailored to the reader who does not have an American legal background. Each chapter offers streamlined versions of illustrative cases, summarizes the leading doctrines, analyzes trends, highlights areas of contemporary debate, raises questions for further discussion, and lists important vocabulary words. The book allows students from anywhere to learn American law through cases, as American lawyers do, but also provides the context they may need to make sense of the opinions. This book is ideal for those who want to understand the contemporary American legal system at more than a superficial level, but who are not currently studying to become American lawyers. The style, organization and content make it useful for a variety of readers: those planning to enter law school, legal assistants, students of American law outside the United States, American undergraduates taking a course in American law and/or in a pre-law program, and graduate level students in areas impacted by American law. In addition to the content, the size, weight, and price of the book make it attractive to students and teachers alike.

McAlinn, Gerald Paul

Stern, John

Legal Education

After moving from Washington, DC, to the Jersey Shore, a former speechwriter for President Obama starts surfing at the age of thirty-five--the rough equivalent of beginning guitar lessons on your deathbed--and must turn for help to the only other surfer he knows: a tattooed, truck-driving, Joe Rogan superfan who happens to be his brother-in-law. David Litt, the Yale-educated writer with a sensible fear of sharks, and Matt, the daredevil electrician with a truck and two motorcycles, had always coexisted from a comfortable distance as brothers-in-law. Yet, as David wallowed in existential dread while America's crises piled up, he couldn't help but notice that Matt seemed perfectly happy. When he wasn't making money rewiring Jersey Shore beach homes, Matt was surfing waves at his favorite spots in the state. Quietly, David started taking surfing lessons. For a few months, he suffered through wipeouts on waves the height of daffodils. But to his surprise, he soon became obsessed. And once he got a sense of the ways that fully committing to surfing could change him both in the water and on land, he set his sights on an unlikely goal: riding a big wave at Hawaii's famously dangerous North Shore. To get there, he'd need Matt's help. At a moment when finding common ground seems more elusive than ever, this moving and poignant buddy comedy in the tradition of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, and love letter to surfing in the vein of William Finnegan's Barbarian Days, is a story about embracing the things--and the people--that scare us most.

It's Only Drowning: A True Story of Learning to Surf and the Pursuit of Common Ground

Community & Culture

GALLERY BOOKS

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Litt, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Litt, David