A review by gpettey19
The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir by Samantha Power
5.0
Exactly the memoir every 26-year-old Political Science major and public service devotee should hope to stumble upon during a quarter-life crisis. Power is a human rights and foreign policy powerhouse (ha); it was so refreshing to read about a woman who forms strong opinions based on lived experience (as opposed to pretentious bullshitting) and gives voice to them.
On a less hopeful note, government actors seem to operate within an insular, watered-down machine. Change is much, much easier said than done. Politics is a game that no one wins. I was disappointed with Power's analysis of the Obama administration's foreign policy blunders, which I felt like she didn't fully or honestly address; it was as if she was still holding a chip in the political gamble and/or she's still in a bit of denial herself.
I was left wondering: America is undoubtedly a force in the world, but how do we balance using our influence for the ever-subjective "good" and imposing our moral superiority on the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America?
Highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in government, foreign policy, and international institutions, or to anyone really!
Mort was the first person I came to know well who had helped make foreign policy at such rarified levels, and over time he would drill into me a simple truth: governments can either do harm or do good. “What we do,” he would say, “depends on one thing: the people.” Institutions, big and small, were made up of people. People had values, and people made choices.
I noted that very few of us were likely to find ourselves the victims or perpetrators of genocide. But every day, almost all of us find ourselves weighing whether we can or should do something to help others. We decide, on issues large and small, whether we will be bystanders or upstanders.
On a less hopeful note, government actors seem to operate within an insular, watered-down machine. Change is much, much easier said than done. Politics is a game that no one wins. I was disappointed with Power's analysis of the Obama administration's foreign policy blunders, which I felt like she didn't fully or honestly address; it was as if she was still holding a chip in the political gamble and/or she's still in a bit of denial herself.
I was left wondering: America is undoubtedly a force in the world, but how do we balance using our influence for the ever-subjective "good" and imposing our moral superiority on the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America?
Highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in government, foreign policy, and international institutions, or to anyone really!
Mort was the first person I came to know well who had helped make foreign policy at such rarified levels, and over time he would drill into me a simple truth: governments can either do harm or do good. “What we do,” he would say, “depends on one thing: the people.” Institutions, big and small, were made up of people. People had values, and people made choices.
I noted that very few of us were likely to find ourselves the victims or perpetrators of genocide. But every day, almost all of us find ourselves weighing whether we can or should do something to help others. We decide, on issues large and small, whether we will be bystanders or upstanders.