The Education of an Idealist
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4.9 • 12 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
‘Her highly personal and reflective memoir … is a must-read for anyone who cares about our role in a changing world’ Barack Obama
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY:
The New York Times • Time • The Economist • The Washington Post • Vanity Fair • Times Literary Supplement
‘What can one person do?’ In this vibrant, galvanizing memoir, human rights advocate and Pulitzer-Prize winning writer Samantha Power offers an urgent response to this question.
As she traces her path from Irish immigrant to war correspondent and activist to eventually becoming the youngest-ever US Ambassador to the United Nations, Power writes with a unique blend of suspenseful storytelling, vivid character portraits and disarming honesty.
Her account illuminates the challenges of navigating the halls of power while trying to put one’s ideals into practice (and raise two young children along the way), and it shows how – even in the face of daunting challenges – each of us can make a difference.
NOW WITH UPDATED AFTERWORD
Reviews
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
AN IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER
AN OBAMA FAVOURITE BOOK OF 2019
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY:
The New York Times • Time • The Economist • The Washington Post • Vanity Fair • Times Literary Supplement
‘Her highly personal and reflective memoir … is a must-read for anyone who cares about our role in a changing world.’
Barack Obama
‘Samantha Power's book is honest, personal, revealing. It is about the development of a young woman's inner strength and self-knowledge. But it is also a political book, alert to both the power of political will and its limitations.’
Colm Tóibín
‘A beautiful memoir about the times we’re living in and the questions we must ask ourselves … I honestly couldn’t put it down’
Cheryl Strayed
‘This is a wonderful book … The interweaving of Power’s personal story, family story, diplomatic history and moral arguments is executed seamlessly and with unblinking honesty’
New York Times
‘One of the best-written political memoirs of recent years’ Fareed Zakaria
‘It’s a profound, heart wrenching, uplifting, and emotional journey through her life and what she’s seen’
Sophia Bush
‘An unusually engaging political memoir…Power is an excellent storyteller, with a deft touch with anecdotes and a nice sense of humour.’
Times Literary Supplement
‘Refreshingly frank and self-deprecating … An energizing reminder that conscience has a place in the process of shaping foreign policy’
TIME Magazine
‘Uniquely personal and absorbing … A riveting fly-on-the wall insight.’
Irish Times
‘Engaging … Power’s memoir is an insider’s account of foreign-policy-making, and an intensely personal one.’
Economist
‘Lively … And strikingly personal …[Power] writes vividly and lucidly here about her turn in the international spotlight.’
Vogue
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In vividly told scenes, with bracing honesty and breathless prose, Pulitzer Prize winner Power (A Problem from Hell) reflects on the roads that led from her college days at Yale to her work in the U.S. government. She graduated from Harvard Law School, and in 2005 met Sen. Barack Obama, who asked her to serve as a foreign policy adviser. After his presidential election, Obama brought Power into the National Security Council in 2009, and from 2013 to 2017, she served as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Power takes readers behind the scenes of her visits to Libya during the final tense days of the Qaddafi regime, pointing out that in spite of the downturn in security, Libya's citizens agreed that they wanted no international presence in their country, but to determine their own future. She discovered that Burma's human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi is a bad listener and that it's not clear that Suu Kyi cared that much about humans. Ultimately, she stresses the necessity of caring, acting, and not giving up when seeking to change people's lives. Power's vibrant prose, exuberant storytelling, and deep insights into human nature make for a page-turning memoir.
