American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama

About the Book: American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama

Traces the story of Michelle Obamas ancestors. Going back to the nineteenth century, the author brings into focus the black, white, and multiracial forebears of the nations first African-American first lady, and reveals the identity of Mrs Obamas white great-great-great grandfather.

Michelle Obamas family saga is a remarkable, quintessentially American story - a journey from slavery to the White House in five generations. As moving as "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" and as sweeping as "The Warmth of Other Suns", "American Tapestry" traces the complex and fascinating story of Michelle Obamas ancestors, a history that the "First Lady" did not even know herself. Going back to the nineteenth century, Rachel L. Swarns brings into focus the black, white, and multiracial forebears of the nations first African-American first lady, and reveals for the first time the identity of Mrs. Obamas white great-great-great grandfather - a man who remained hidden for more than a century in her family tree. "American Tapestry" illuminates the lives of the ordinary people who fought for freedom in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars; who founded the Jewish Reform movement; who endured the agonies of slavery, the displacement of the Great Migration, and the horrors of Jim Crow to build a better future for their children. Though it is an intimate family history, "American Tapestry" is also the collective story of our changing nation - a nation in which racial intermingling lingers in the bloodlines of countless Americans, and slavery remains the crucible through which many family lines-black, white, and Native American-were forged. Expertly researched, epic in scope, "American Tapestry" is a singularly American, singularly inspiring story with resonance for us all.

About the Author: Rachel L. Swarns

Rachel L. Swarns has been a correspondent for the New York Times since 1995. She has written about domestic policy and national politics, reporting on immigration, the presidential campaigns of 2004 and 2008 and First Lady Michelle Obama. She has been a foreign correspondent for the Times, reporting from Russia, Cuba and Southern Africa, where she served as the Johannesburg bureau chief. She has also worked for the Miami Herald where she covered the L.A. riots and the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two children.