Hank Aaron was one of the best baseball players we’ve ever seen and one of the strongest people I’ve ever met.

Every time Michelle and I spent time with Hank and his wife Billye, we were struck by their kindness, generosity and grace — and were reminded that we stood on the shoulders of a previous generation of trailblazers.

A child of the Jim Crow South, Hank quit high school to join the Negro League, playing shortstop for $200 a month before earning a spot in Major League Baseball. Humble and hardworking, Hank was often overlooked until he started chasing…

In his inaugural address, President Biden said this is a time for boldness, for there is so much to do. He’s right. And while the work is just beginning, it really does feel like a new day for America — not only because of the President’s words but because of his actions.

Today, thanks to executive orders and other directives signed by the President hours after taking office, we are closer to ending this pandemic and better prepared for the next one. Fewer Americans will be evicted from their homes or fall behind on their student loan payments. Dreamers won’t…

In so many ways, this was a different kind of inauguration — with so much of the pomp and pageantry muted by a pandemic that is still raging. But the most sacred tradition of Inauguration Day couldn’t be stopped: Today, we watched a new president take his oath and usher in a renewal of our democracy.

Michelle and I were honored to be there to support President Biden and Vice President Harris on this historic day.

And while our country still faces no shortage of challenges, there is no one I have more faith in to lead us out of…

History will rightly remember today’s violence at the Capitol, incited by a sitting president who has continued to baselessly lie about the outcome of a lawful election, as a moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation. But we’d be kidding ourselves if we treated it as a total surprise.

For two months now, a political party and its accompanying media ecosystem has too often been unwilling to tell their followers the truth — that this was not a particularly close election and that President-Elect Biden will be inaugurated on January 20. Their fantasy narrative has spiraled further and…

As 2020 comes to a close, I wanted to share my annual lists of favorites. I’ll start by sharing my favorite books this year, deliberately omitting what I think is a pretty good book — A Promised Land — by a certain 44th president. I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I did.

• Homeland Elegies — Ayad Akhtar
• Jack — Marilynne Robinson
• Caste — Isabel Wilkerson
• The Splendid and the Vile — Erik Larson
• Luster — Raven Leilani
• How Much Of These Hills Is Gold — C Pam Zhang
• Long Bright River — Liz Moore
• Memorial Drive —…

One of the first things I discovered as President of the United States was that no decision that landed on my desk had an easy, tidy answer. The black-and-white questions never made it to me — somebody else on my staff would have already answered them. And while few decisions in life are as complex as the ones you face in the Oval Office, I did walk away from my eight years as president with some thoughts on how to approach tough questions.

In March of 2009, just a couple of months into my presidency, the economy was in freefall…

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. 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 is published here. …

I could not be prouder to congratulate our next President, Joe Biden, and our next First Lady, Jill Biden.

I also couldn’t be prouder to congratulate Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff for Kamala’s groundbreaking election as our next Vice President.

In this election, under circumstances never experienced, Americans turned out in numbers never seen. And once every vote is counted, President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris will have won a historic and decisive victory.

We’re fortunate that Joe’s got what it takes to be President and already carries himself that way. Because when he walks into the White House in…