The Education of an Idealist

The Education of an Idealist

By Samantha Power

Released September 10, 2019

In her memoir, Power offers an urgent response to the question "What can one person do?" and a call for a clearer eye, a kinder heart, and a more open and civil hand in our politics and daily lives. The Education of an Idealist traces Power’s distinctly American journey from immigrant to war correspondent to presidential Cabinet official. In 2005, her critiques of US foreign policy caught the eye of newly elected senator Barack Obama, who invited her to work with him on Capitol Hill and then on his presidential campaign. After Obama was elected president, Power went from being an activist outsider to a government insider, navigating the halls of power while trying to put her ideals into practice. She served for four years as Obama’s human rights adviser, and in 2013, he named her US Ambassador to the United Nations, the youngest American to assume the role.

Samantha Power is a Professor of Practice at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Law School. From 2013 to 2017, Power served in the Cabinet of President Barack Obama and as the youngest ever U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. From 2009-2013, Power worked on the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights. 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 bestseller Chasing the Flame: One Man's Fight to Save the World. Power, who began her career as a journalist reporting from places such as Bosnia, East Timor, Rwanda, and Sudan, has been named one of TIME’s “100 Most Influential People.” She immigrated to the United States from Ireland as a child, and she lives in Massachusetts with her husband Cass Sunstein and their two children.