The Education of an Idealist by Samatha Power.

• Author: Camp, Donald

The Education of an Idealist by Samatha Power

How does a committed and outspoken human rights activist confront the compromises necessary in diplomacy? This is the key issue former US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power tackles in her intensely personal memoir. She is a hard-hitting journalist and crusader against genocide when she takes a job with then-Senator Obama and ends up on the National Security Council staff. She's suddenly part of the establishment and it's not an easy transition.

Her story begins in Ireland where she spends a happy childhood with two parents who love her deeply but who separate when her mother moves to Pittsburgh with the kids. Her alcoholic father's descent into depression and an early death leaves her with an adolescent sense of responsibility that takes years of therapy to overcome.

She goes to Yale, fully Americanized with an addiction to the Pittsburgh Pirates and a plan for a career in sports journalism. College changes things. She watches the Tiananmen killings on television and, on a trip to Europe, visits Anne Frank's house and Dachau. She emerges with a social conscience and a determination to make a difference.

Right out of college, she begins working at the Carnegie Institution, where she becomes immersed in Balkans activism. She calls Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott to lobby for action on Bosnia ("I'm a little busy with Haiti right now," he responds) and sneaks into the office of the editor of Foreign Policy to steal his letterhead and portray herself as a Foreign Policycorrespondent to get a UN laissez passer for Bosnia. Her courageous journalism and considerable writing skills ultimately produce the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Problem from Hell, on the American response to genocide.

The book opens doors for her. Obama reads it and invites her to join his Senate staff. She admires him and sees an opportunity to make a difference inside the system. Later, as an active campaigner for his presidential election, she is sidelined after her intemperate comment that Hillary Clinton was a "monster." Dick Holbrooke later arranges a meeting with Clinton who accepts her apology.

The out-spokenness continues in her next job on the NSC staff. Always self-aware, she acknowledges her tendency to seem "preachy," "off-puttingly intense, " and sanctimonious. At a Cabinet meeting, President Obama snaps "we've all read your book, Samantha."

She has a good instinct for people. Sent to Burma to advance...