John K. Wilson makes no bones about the fact that his new book, Barack Obama: This Improbable Quest, is not a work of so-called objective journalism. Wilson was a student of Obama's at the University of Chicago Law School. "He was rational, and sincere, and honest," Wilson writes, "so I never imagined he could have a successful political career." He says he wants to make clear that he is an admirer of Barack Obama and wants to write not a biography but a political analysis of his values and his proposals and explain why he represents a new kind of progressive political movement.

But Wilson makes the mistake of playing by the rules as laid out by his hero's critics: He takes their arguments, which are rooted in voting record, experience and the conduct of his friends and associates, and reacts to them. In the musical Man of La Mancha, Don Quixote makes the romantic point that "Facts are the enemy of truth." In Wilson's case, they are a stumbling block in its way.

Too often he raises a point made by them and attempts to respond to it by citing something in Obama's experience or record. He comes off as whiney and shallow, and a shill for his man to such a degree that he can't see why anyone else might not see Obama the way he does. And there is no scrap of criticism, it seems, too small for him to address. "Obama's failure to condemn all military action has led to sharp criticism from some on the left," he writes, before quoting blogger Glen Ford's declaration that Barack Obama is an imperialist. Then he quotes historian and antiwar activist Anthony Arnove, who says that Obama "accepts the Bush Doctrine" of pre-emptive strikes. He then proceeds to explain that the worst part of the Bush administration is not the Bush Doctrine but Bush's implementation of it.

It takes him until the last thin chapter before he takes up the true strength of Obama's appeal, which is the prospect of a different kind of politics: not the brawling, combative or manipulative style which - regardless of actual positions on actual issues - has encumbered the nation for decades, but one rooted in the candidate's background as a community organizer. Maybe the most important sentence in the book comes as a new idea just a few paragraphs from the end: "The genius of Obama is his ability to pursue a progressive agenda in a bipartisan manner, to merge liberalism with practical politics." That and the possibility of restoring trust in government is what needs amplification in this campaign - not the contortion of Obama's life experience to answer every snipe that comes from the other side. And in that regard, Wilson comes up a bit short. Obama deserves better.

Michael Connery's Youth To Power is part pep talk for the newest wave of voters, part analysis of their brief track record at the ballot box, and part exploration of what he calls a new brand of activism. Millenials, Connery tells us, are the kids who come after Generation X. Born between 1978 and 1996, they're the echo of the Baby Boom - not quite as numerous as their parents, but much greater in number and, Connery argues, much greater in their level of civic engagement than the allegedly apathetic generation that preceded them. Co-founder of the 2004 get-out-the-vote campaign Music for America, Connery now blogs about progressive youth politics at futuremajority.com.

If an aging hippie has ever looked at the war- protest turnout at Public Square and wondered if anyone really does care about this wasteful, trumped-up war, Connery provides a heartening look at the dynamic. In a quote from University of Michigan history professor Matt Lassiter, he observes that the legacy of 1960s youth activism is "an inspiration and a burden to young activists today." When Millennials turned out in great numbers in opposition to globalization in Seattle, or to the Iraq War in New York and San Francisco, they were either ignored or vilified by the media - conglomerates controlled, these days, by those protesting pioneers, the Baby Boomers. Yesterday's strategy hasn't been working for their kids.

Instead they are finding their own way. For example, Connery writes the story of Joe Anthony, a supporter of Barack Obama who independently created an Obama MySpace page that racked up 160,000 supporters. As Connery writes, the "unauthorized" profile was an example of grassroots politicking at its best, demonstrating the value that an individual acting on his own initiative can bring to politics. YouTube, cell phones and other technological tools have also enabled Millenials to take campaigning into their own hands rather than leaving it up to the traditional power brokers.

Connery wisely observes that what he calls the "conservative youth factory" remains light years ahead of progressives at training their next generation of activists, and that the progressives in general and the Millennials in particular could learn from their structures. He optimistically observes that in their brief voting record so far, the Millennials are showing markedly higher levels of civic engagement than the preceding generation. We can only hope.

Barack Obama: This Improbable Quest: By John K. Wilson, Paradigm Publishers, 2008, 208 pages, hardcover, $22.95.

Youth To Power: By Michael Connery, Ig Publishing, 2008, 200 pages, trade paper, $14.95.