The Education of an Idealist sounds like it’s going to be the tale of what happens when a crusading journalist—as former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power once was—becomes the person making the decisions and finds out how hard it is to solve anything. Instead, it becomes a chronicle of how to, in Power’s words, “prosecute change”—with a legion of conversations, a commitment to building relationships, a slew of tiny adjustments in the law, an unflagging enthusiasm for advocacy and a lot of childcare. Refreshingly frank and self-deprecating, Power’s memoir is an energizing reminder that conscience has a place in the process of shaping foreign policy.
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