"The Education of an Idealist, A Memoir" -- Samantha Power, 2019

When she was in her twenties, Samantha Power became a war correspondent in Central Europe.  She reported from the front lines of the conflict in (the former) Yugoslavia, risking her life to provide first-hand accounts of atrocities committed by Bosnian Serbs in their program of “ethnic cleansing.”  Later, she found that war crimes investigators had trouble determining accurate timelines for events.  Power responded by researching and documenting incidents so that prosecutors and (later) scholars could make better sense of events.  

As a graduate student, Power expanded her earlier work and became an expert on a hideously grim subject: genocide.  She spent five years researching and writing about the topic, and when she put together all her work, no major publisher (even the publisher that had paid her and advance to write the book!) wanted to touch it.  “Too depressing,” they said.  

Fortunately, a small, independent publisher took on the project.  The book exceeded everyone’s expectations, and in 2003, Samantha Power won a Pulitzer Prize for her book, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.

Power earned a BA from Yale and a JD from Harvard.  She worked for Barack Obama, first on his Senate staff, later on his presidential campaign.  When Obama won the Presidency in 2008, Power joined the White House staff.  In his second term, Obama named her as the US Ambassador to the United Nations, a position she held until 2017.

Power’s memoir covers these and many other fascinating details about her life.  Her story is examined with a journalist’s eye, and she doesn’t shy away from revealing her own challenges, both personal and professional.  Neither does she sugarcoat her criticisms of world leaders — including people whom she admires and respects.  She reveals strengths and weakness, successes and failures, in real detail without ever descending into the tawdry or vulgar.

She is an excellent storyteller with a clear moral compass, and her memoir is well worth your time.