The Education of an Idealist is a memoir of Samantha Power. Samantha Power is a Pulitzer Prize winning author. She worked as a war correspondent, human rights activist and served as the 28th United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Samantha Power was born in Dublin, Ireland. She explains her childhood in Ireland with her parents and her immigration to United states with her mother, brother and stepfather. The insecurity being an immigrant and her actions to be an American girl and her love towards sports like tennis, baseball are well explained in the early part of the book. She lost her biological father to excessive drinking back in Dublin and she carried the blame of not going back to stay with her father until she worked on it. Samantha Power started her career as a war correspondent in Bosnia. She walked through the war afflicted area and contacted victims to get direct information about the atrocities happening to them. In spite of reporting the atrocities she wished the US took more interest to protect these people. She joined Harvard Law School after the war correspondent job. During her law school year she wrote the book 'A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide' for which she won the Pulitzer Prize award. In this book she explained the United State's inaction on genocides in the 20th century. Once she completed the Law School she acted as the Executive Director of Centre for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Later she worked as a Professor in the Harvard's Kennedy School. In 2008, when Obama started his presidential campaign, she was chosen as the senior foreign policy adviser. Because of a remark she made about Hillary Clinton during the campaign she was asked to resign the position. During her campaign she met Cass Sustein, her spouse. Once Obama became president, he appointed her as Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs at the National Security Council. Her 2 kids - Declan and Rian were born during this 4 year period of working with National Security Council. During the second term of Obama she was appointed as US Ambassador to the United Nations.
In the book Samantha Power explained in detail about the work she did during the Obama period as well as during her early Bosnian days. The book gives an idea of US foreign policies. The book describes how US works with other countries to prevent mass murders happening in other countries like Bosnia, Sudan, Serbia, Ukraine, CAR. You also get an of idea how the UN works. The book also shows the limitations of UN. As Russia is one of the permanent member among the five permanent members of UN, the UN couldn't stop Russia from attacking Ukraine and capture their area as all the members have the veto power. However the US provided military support for the Ukraine government. It gives the idea that UN is not a person but it is an organisation with its own laws and rules. Even if Samantha Power wanted to prevent the mass killings happening in Israel, US didn't go for the total military intervention as the Russia was supporting the Assad regime. However she was able to persuade the US president and they destroyed the chemical weapons used by the Assad regime. She tried to visit countries which are least visited or not at all visited by a US ambassador. The book explains how the US intervention helped to track down the Ebola virus, obtain the Paris agreement on climate change and many more.
Samantha Power always wanted to prevent mass killings and wanted to help people. As a US ambassoder she worked for women, LGBT, refugees, immigrants and other vulnerable people as well. As a mother of 2 young kids she played a role model for those women and girls outside who are interested to serve humanity. She had visited the Ebola affected countries on the verge of the spread to boost people for the recovery and accepting the people who are recovered from Ebola. After her service as US ambassoder to the UN she moved to Massachusetts and restarted teaching at Harvard Kennedy School and Law School.
The book gave me interest to learn more about the world events. This led me to be grateful for being living in a country without any wars or any human rights violations. I learned the idea that by being a small helping hand I might not change the whole world but I can change the world for that particular human being. There are cases where the actions went wrong even if it was done for the right reasons. It is also applicable for the the decision made by a country as well no matter how developed it is. This book gave me an inspiration to read books more about the world and its political views and actions. I encourage everyone to read this book to get an idea about the world, US foreign policies, UN actions and more.
When you read a memoir you will realize that they also grew up in the same environment as we grew up. You could live their life while you read the book by being in the author's shoes. You will feel proud when you read how Samantha Power got her US ambassador position. You could feel the stress and anxiety when you read through the bombshell sound that occurred near to the hotel where she stayed while working in Bosnia. You will cry with her when the Jackson Niamah conveyed the gravity of Ebola affected in countries Guinea, Liberia, Sierre Leone. At the end you may feel to lend a helping hand more often. You may feel that you can also be someone who work with the government to help more vulnerable people.
A great book to read to get inspired and dream big in your life. Being vulnerable doesn't mean you lack the opportunity to live your dream and become successful. There are many ideas and experiences you can learn by reading this book. Grab the book and get inspired.
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