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A national bestseller on its original publication in 2003, Madam Secretary is a riveting account of the life of America's first woman Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. For eight years, during Bill Clinton's two presidential terms, Albright was a high-level participant in some of the most dramatic events of our time--from the pursuit of peace in the Middle East to NATO's intervention in the Balkans to America's troubled relations with Iran and Iraq. In this thoughtful memoir, one of the most admired women in U.S. history reflects on her remarkable personal story, including her upbringing in war-torn Europe and the balancing of career and family responsibilities, and on America's leading role in a changing world. With a new epilogue by the author, Madam Secretary offers an inimitable blend of Albright's warm humor, probing insights, and distinctive ideas.… (more)
User reviews
Her accounts of personal, national,
The book is well-documented. Indexed.
A great model for any woman who ponders how to juggle life, family and a career.
It is an entertaining and enlightening book and for those who feel that the Rwandan genocide is a stain on the UN and, because of its power, the US, Madeleine does not duck the issue. She details the complications, the UN bickering, the dreadful US experience in Somalia as reasons for that failure to act but does not shirk from admitting that she deeply regrets not advocating that the US take effective action which might have saved thousands of lives. 'Many people would have thought I was crazy and we would never have won support from Congress, but I would have been right, and possibly my voice would have been heard' (p.155). Of course it's easy to express sorrow after the event ('History is written backwards but lived forwards', p.154) but throughout her book she comes across as someone who is sincere and her sincerity is apparent here also. It really was a dreadful chapter in our history as humans on this planet and she is fully aware of this and is deeply saddened by it.
Then the question of her Jewish ancestry. Very vexed. How could she not have known about it, given her refugee background, her father's flight from Europe, & etc.? She writes that she began to receive letters around the time just before her accession to the post of Secretary of State 'which made me think my parents might have been of Jewish ancestry'. (p.222). The media went to town on the story after her nomination. She writes: 'I was made to feel like a liar and my father, whom I adored, was portrayed as a heartless fraud' (p.235). All I can say is that if she genuinely did not know, then it really was a dreadful time for her and she was treated most unfairly. If she did know, it was also a dreadful time and it was her own business. Certainly it had nothing to do with whether or not she was a good Secretary of State, good for the US and good for the world. Which I think she was.
This book is worth reading. It covers a lot of ground, is full of very human insights into the personal life of someone who was at the crossroads of international affairs at a time when some very dark things were happening, and it is written in an easy accessible style, this last quality no doubt due in part her having the collaboration of Bill Woodword.
I got just a tiny bit bored during some of the minutia about the politics and world events toward the end of the book, but overall this was really good. At its best when she's describing her "real life" vs. her work life.
Original publication date: 2001
Author’s nationality: American, Czech born
Original language: English
Length: 736 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/where I acquired the book: kindle purchase
Why I read this: interested in the topic/life
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""It was quarter to ten. I was sipping coffee, but by then my body was manufacturing its own caffeine. I still couldn't allow myself to believe. Finally, at 9:47, the call came. 'I want you to be my Secretary of State.' These were his first words. I finally believed it."
FOR EIGHT YEARS, DURING BILL CLINTON'S
two presidential terms, Madeleine Albright was an active participant in the most dramatic events of recent times—from the pursuit of peace in the Middle East to NATO's humanitarian intervention in Kosovo. Now, in an outspoken memoir, the highest-ranking woman in American history shares her remarkable story and provides an insider's view of world affairs during a period of unprecedented turbulence.
That story begins with Albright's childhood as a Czechoslovak refugee, whose family first fled Hitler, then the Communists. Arriving in the United States at the age of eleven, she grew up to be a passionate advocate of civil and women's rights and followed a zigzag path to a career that ultimately placed her in the upper stratosphere of diplomacy and policy-making in her adopted country. She became the first woman to serve as America's secretary of state and one of the most admired individuals of our era.
Refreshingly candid, Madam Secretary brings to life the world leaders Albright dealt with face-to-face in her years of service and the battles she fought to prove her worth in a male-dominated arena. There are intriguing portraits of such leading figures as Václav Havel, Yasser Arafat, Ariel Sharon, Benjamin Netanyahu, King Hussein, Vladimir Putin, Slobodan Milošević, and North Korea's mysterious Kim Jong-Il, as well as Bill and Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell, and Jesse Helms.
Besides her encounters with the famous and powerful, we get to know Albright the private woman: her life raising three daughters, the painful breakup of her marriage to the scion of one of America's leading newspaper families, and the discovery late in life of her Jewish ancestry and that her grandparents had died in Nazi concentration camps.
Madam Secretary combines warm humor with profound insights and personal testament with fascinating additions to the historical record. It is a tapestry both intimate and panoramic, a rich memoir destined to become a twenty-first-century classic.
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, born in Prague, was confirmed as the sixty-fourth secretary of state in 1997. Her distinguished career in government includes positions in the National Security Council, as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and on Capitol Hill. She lives in Washington, D.C., and Virginia."
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CONTENTS
PREFACE xi
PART ONE
FROM MADLENKA TO MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
ONE: Heroes and Villains 3
TWO: Becoming an American i8
THREE: Best of All Possible Worlds 31
FOUR: Family Values 48
FIVE: Mrs. Albright Goes to Washington 63
SIX: From Pole to Pole 77
SEVEN: 'Til Death Do Us Part 94
EIGHT: The Velvet Revolution 109
PART TWO
FOURTEEN SUITS AND A SKIRT
NINE: A Sign Saying Simply "United States" 127 TEN: New World (Dis)Order 141
ELEVEN: Frequent Flyer 162
TWELVE: Horror in the Balkans 177
THIRTEEN: The Strength of My Own Voice 194
PART THREE
MADAM SECRETARY
FOURTEEN: "I Want You to Be My Secretary of State" 215
FIFTEEN: Names on the Synagogue Wall 235
SIXTEEN: Building a Europe Whole and Free 250
SEVENTEEN: Migraine Hussein 272
EIGHTEEN: Welcome to the Middle East 288
NINETEEN: "Palestinians and Israelis Coming Together" 306
TWENTY: Dueling with Dictators 319
TWENTY-ONE: As the World Turns 339
PART FOUR
WAGING WAR, PURSUING PEACE
TWENTY-TWO: A Special Kind of Evil 361
TWENTY-THREE: "Milosevic Is the Problem" 378
TWENTY-FOUR: Kosovo: Diplomacy and the Threat of Force 393
TWENTY-FIVE: The Alliance Prevails 408
TWENTY-SIX: Freedom and Order in the Global Era 429
TWENTY-SEVEN: Inside the Hermit Kingdom 455
TWENTY-EIGHT: The Fruitless Quest 473
TWENTY-NINE: Had We But World Enough, and Time 499
SELECTED CHRONOLOGY 513
OFFICIAL INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL, 1993-200l 520
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 524
GRATITUDE 527
INDEX 533