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"What right has this woman to be so educated?" is a question an Irish judge asked of Samatha Power''s mother, though the same question could be applied to Samantha''s own life. A Pulitzer Prize winner, a war correspondent, an Irish immigrant, and a former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Power''s life has been an education in diplomacy, sorrow, resilience, determination, and humility. The Education of an Idealist is a memoir about these things, but also about idealism as a guiding principle of thought and action: where it comes from, how it gets challenged, and why it must endure. In his New York Times review, Thomas L. Friedman posits Power''s book is perfect for course adoption, saying, "I can imagine a course for incoming diplomats [...] that would use Power''s book as a text, and the final exam question would be: ''In 500 words or less, explain whether you identify with the younger Power or the older Power."
About the author
Samantha Power is a Professor of Practice at the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Law School. From 2013-2017, Power served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and a member of President Obama’s cabinet. From 2009-2013, Power served on the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights. Power began her career as a journalist, reporting from places such as Bosnia, East Timor, Kosovo, Rwanda, Sudan, and Zimbabwe, and she was the founding executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School. Power’s book, “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. She is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers Chasing the Flame: One Man’s Fight to Save the World (2008) and The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir (2019), which was named one of the best books of 2019 by the New York Times, Washington Post, Economist, NPR, and TIME. Power earned a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Report
“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.”
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, The New York Times Book Review
