Edward McClelland, former staff writer for the Chicago Reader, reports on President Obama’s first campaign for the Illinois State Senate. Mr. McClelland, who covered the primary campaign, profiles the then 35-year-old law professor who canvassed Chicago’s South Side and recounts the future president’s early lessons in politics. Edward McClelland discussed his book as part of a panel that included William Jelani Cobb, author of The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress and moderated by Keli Goff, author of Party Crashing: How the Hip-Hop Generation Declared Political Independence. They also responded to questions from members of the audience. The event was hosted by the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York.