I’m Not Yet Ready to Abandon the Possibility of America

The Atlantic is pleased to offer, below, an adapted and updated excerpt from former President Barack Obama’s new memoir, A Promised Land, which will be published on Tuesday by Crown. Yesterday, The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, sat down with President Obama to conduct the first interview for publication that he has given about the writing of his book, his time in office, and his analysis of the current political moment. The extensive interview will be posted on Monday. In the excerpt below, Obama writes about his undiminished belief in the American idea, and about the impetus to put his presidency down on paper.

At the end of my presidency, Michelle and I boarded Air Force One for the last time and traveled west for a long-deferred break. The mood on the plane was bittersweet. Both of us were drained, physically and emotionally, not only by the labors of the previous eight years but by the unexpected results of an election in which someone diametrically opposed to everything we stood for had been chosen as my successor.