Ben Rhodes
“We live in a cynical time. We are surrounded by forces designed to make us feel like we lack control—whether it’s an algorithm that shapes what we see, an oligarchy that controls wealth and power, a world untethered from old notions of order, a climate that is changing, or artificial intelligence, which mimics human functions and thought. Corruption abounds. The existence of truth itself is distorted and contested. Yet history shows us that the words we speak can matter.”
—Ben Rhodes
Ben Rhodes is a writer, political commentator, and foreign affairs expert. He is the author of three New York Times bestsellers: All We Say: The Battle for American Identity: A History in 15 Speeches; After the Fall: The Rise of Authoritarianism in the World We’ve Made; and The World As It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House.
All We Say tells the story of fifteen speeches—some iconic, others long forgotten—which have both shaped and reflected the argument Americans have been having from our founding to the present day. At a time when American identity—and truth—is contested, the book reminds us that history is a living argument, offering a fresh and powerful look at who we are and who we could still become.
“It’s a brilliant conceit—explore the longstanding debate over American identity through a close examination of fifteen exceptional speeches and the people who delivered them—and Ben Rhodes carries it off beautifully in this generous, trenchant, urgently needed book.”
—Fredrik Logevall, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam
Rhodes is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, co-host of Pod Save the World, and a contributor for MSNBC. From 2009-2017, Rhodes served as a speechwriter and Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama, participating in all of the President’s key foreign policy decisions.
His work has also been published in The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, and Foreign Affairs. A native New Yorker, he has a B.A. from Rice University and an M.F.A from New York University.
For more information on Ben Rhodes, please visit him on Instagam, Bluesky, Substack, and at benrhodes.info.
“We live in a cynical time. We are surrounded by forces designed to make us feel like we lack control—whether it’s an algorithm that shapes what we see, an oligarchy that controls wealth and power, a world untethered from old notions of order, a climate that is changing, or artificial intelligence, which mimics human functions and thought. Corruption abounds. The existence of truth itself is distorted and contested. Yet history shows us that the words we speak can matter.”
—Ben Rhodes
Ben Rhodes is a writer, political commentator, and foreign affairs expert. He is the author of three New York Times bestsellers: All We Say: The Battle for American Identity: A History in 15 Speeches; After the Fall: The Rise of Authoritarianism in the World We’ve Made; and The World As It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House.
All We Say tells the story of fifteen speeches—some iconic, others long forgotten—which have both shaped and reflected the argument Americans have been having from our founding to the present day. At a time when American identity—and truth—is contested, the book reminds us that history is a living argument, offering a fresh and powerful look at who we are and who we could still become.
“It’s a brilliant conceit—explore the longstanding debate over American identity through a close examination of fifteen exceptional speeches and the people who delivered them—and Ben Rhodes carries it off beautifully in this generous, trenchant, urgently needed book.”
—Fredrik Logevall, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam
Rhodes is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, co-host of Pod Save the World, and a contributor for MSNBC. From 2009-2017, Rhodes served as a speechwriter and Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama, participating in all of the President’s key foreign policy decisions.
His work has also been published in The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, and Foreign Affairs. A native New Yorker, he has a B.A. from Rice University and an M.F.A from New York University.
For more information on Ben Rhodes, please visit him on Instagam, Bluesky, Substack, and at benrhodes.info.
How Speeches Have Shaped the Battle for American Identity
Ben Rhodes discusses his new book All We Say, which traces the arguments we have been having about what it means to be American – and who gets to decide – from Benjamin Franklin to Donald Trump.
Being Human in an Age of AI and Authoritarianism
With our lives disrupted by technology, our society deeply divided, and our sense of control over our own lives diminishing by the day, how do we make sense of where things are going? Ben Rhodes discusses his own journey from Rice to the present day, and shares thoughts on how turning to history and shared culture can help us rediscover ourselves and our connection to one another.
- America’s Changing Role in a Changed World
- China, the U.S. and the Future of Asia
- Messaging and Narrative in a Fractured Media
Selected Articles and Essays:
- Voters Have Spoken. Why Aren’t Democrats Listening?, The New York Times
- This Isn’t the Donald Trump America Elected., The New York Times
- I Study Guys Like Trump. There’s a Reason They Keep Winning., The New York Times
- A Foreign Policy for the World as It Is, Foreign Affairs
- Henry Kissinger, the Hypocrite, The New York Times
- Gaza: The Cost of Escalation, The New York Review of Books
- Why No One Believes American Rhetoric About Democracy, The Atlantic
- We Have Reached a Hinge of History, The Atlantic
- The Democratic Renewal: What It Will Take to Fix U.S. Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs
- The Path to Autocracy, The Atlantic
- The 9/11 Era Is Over, The Atlantic
- Democrats Should Stand for Democracy in Venezuela — and Democratic Values in America, The Washington Post
- How to Check Trump and Repair America’s Image, The New York Times
Selected Books:
- All We Say: The Battle for American Identity: A History in 15 Speeches (Random House, 2026)
- After the Fall: The Rise of Authoritarianism in the World We’ve Made (Random House, 2021)
- The World As It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House (Random House, 2018)
Everything went smooth as silk. Ben talked with many, many people and generated lots of follow-up conversations and thinking by faculty and students — that’s just what we want.
Everybody appreciated his acute and thoughtful answers to the many questions asked.
Ben Rhodes is a charming and humble guide through an unprecedented presidency.… He never quite loses his idealism; in a crass political era, he impressively avoids becoming a cynic.… His achievement is rare for a political memoir: He has written a humane and honorable book.
Ben Rhodes is one of the most brilliant minds and powerful storytellers I’ve ever known.
- Revisiting the Speech That Made America See Farmworkers: Dolores Huerta and the Power of Saying, ‘We Exist’, Ms. Magazine
- A Three-Pronged Examination into What Happens to America Next, The Washington Post
- The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama’s Foreign-Policy Guru, The New York Times Magazine
- LISTEN: A Democracy Worth Saving: Author Ben Rhodes on the Rise of Global Nationalism, KUOW
- LISTEN: Can America Broker Peace Between Israel and the Palestinians?, The Economist Asks
- LISTEN: Ben Rhodes on ‘Missing America’ and Working Under the Obama Administration, The Ringer
- LISTEN: Obama Staffer Looks Back On His White House Years: ‘It Can Take A Real Toll’, Fresh Air, NPR
- WATCH: Ben Rhodes in conversation at the 2022 Sun Valley Writers’ Festival
BOOKS
All We Say
All We Say is—like its author—brilliant, generous, and wise. Rhodes reminds us what American greatness actually sounds like, and what it means.
Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies
After the Fall
The World As It Is
Videos
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