Power's memoir is an unforgettable account of the power of idealism and of one person's fierce determination to make a difference."- Provided by publisher. Along the way, she illuminates the intricacies of politics and geopolitics, reminding us how the United States can lead in the world, and why we each have the opportunity to advance the cause of human dignity. A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2019 AN NPR. Humorous and deeply honest, lays bare the searing battles and defining moments of her life and shows how she juggled the demands of a 24/7 national security job with the challenge of raising two young children. A NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER. Power transports us from her childhood in Dublin to the streets of war-torn Bosnia to the White House Situation Room and the world of high-stakes diplomacy. She served for four years as Obama's human rights adviser, and in 2013, he named her US Ambassador to the United Nations, the youngest American to assume the role. After Obama was elected president, Power went from being an activist outsider to a government insider, navigating the halls of power while trying to put her ideals into practice. In 2005, her critiques of US foreign policy caught the eye of newly elected senator Barack Obama, who invited her to work with him on Capitol Hill and then on his presidential campaign. traces Power's distinctly American journey from immigrant to war correspondent to presidential Cabinet official. "In her memoir, Power offers an urgent response to the question 'What can one person do?' and a call for a clearer eye, a kinder heart, and a more open and civil hand in our politics and daily lives. But, ever the idealist, Power also clearly hopes that this book will convince readers that, when there is injustice in the world, America has the moral imperative to do something.Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index. The Education of an Idealist is Power’s life story, but it also feels like peering through a time capsule into a period when America showed more compassion for refugees and the disadvantaged. Perhaps because she has no political ambitions of her own, she is free to write what she really thinks (diplomatically, of course). In her political work, Power is often the only woman in the room, and she doesn’t sugarcoat her experiences with sexism at both the White House and the U.N.īut neither does Power gloss over any professional mistakes and regrets, or any missteps made by President Obama. She reveals how campaigns, governments and diplomacy operate behind closed doors-the pale, male upper echelons of how the world works. Candor from someone of her stature regarding such personal matters is refreshing, and Power draws directly from her own journals throughout the memoir. She writes of the lifelong emotional toll of her father’s alcoholism and young death, of her panic attacks and seeking help at Al-Anon meetings and in therapy. Much of what she has seen is heartbreaking.īorn in Ireland, Power immigrated to the United States as a child after her parents’ divorce. Power writes in-depth about her attempts to influence foreign policy from both the outside and the inside-first covering the Balkan war as a journalist, then as a government official during the crises in Darfur, Libya and Syria. Readers need not be foreign policy wonks to read The Education of an Idealist, but wonks will find the most to chew on here. Power’s new memoir is a record of this impressive life. Ambassador to the United Nations made her career front-page news. But joining Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, becoming his White House advisor on human rights and serving as U.S. Winning the Pulitizer Prize in 2003 for her book about genocide made Samantha Power a public figure.
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