Samantha Power - The Education of an Idealist

Samantha Power - The Education of an Idealist

Wednesday, Nov 20, 2019 7:00 PM

Location:
The Carter Center
453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway NE, Atlanta, GA 30307

Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017 and a Pulitzer Prize winner, brings her memoir "The Education of an Idealist" to Atlanta's Carter Center. Power will appear in conversation with former CNN Executive Vice President and bestselling author Gail Evans.

A note on the types of tickets available for this event:
Each ADMIT 1 TICKET includes ONE signed copy of the book.
Each ADMIT 2 TICKET includes ONE signed copy of the book.

Couples or friends who are attending this event together should purchase an ADMIT 1 TICKET if each person would like to receive a copy of "The Education of an Idealist."

Skip the fees and purchase your tickets at A Cappella Books. 

If you are unable to attend, you may pre-order a signed copy here:

About the Book

Samantha Power, widely known as a relentless advocate for promoting human rights, has been heralded by President Barack Obama as one of America's "foremost thinkers on foreign policy."

In her intimate and powerful 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.

Power transports us from her childhood in Dublin to the streets of war-torn Bosnia to the White House Situation Room and the world of high-stakes diplomacy. Humorous and deeply honest, "The Education of an Idealist" lays bare the searing battles and defining moments of her life and shows how she juggled the demands of a 24/7 national security job with the challenge of raising two young children. Along the way, she illuminates the intricacies of politics and geopolitics, reminding us how the United States can lead in the world, and why we each have the opportunity to advance the cause of human dignity. Power’s memoir is an unforgettable account of the power of idealism—and of one person’s fierce determination to make a difference.

About the Author

Samantha Power is the Anna Lindh Professor of the Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and William D. Zabel '61 Professor of Practice in Human Rights at Harvard Law School.

From 2013 to 2017, Power served as the 28th U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, as well as a member of President Obama’s cabinet. From 2009 to 2013, Power served on the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights.

Power has been recognized as a leading voice internationally for principled American engagement in the world. Her book "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide" won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2003. Power is also author of the New York Times bestseller "Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World" (2008) and was the co-editor, with Derek Chollet, of "The Unquiet American: Richard Holbrooke in the World" (2011).

Power began her career as a journalist, reporting from places such as Bosnia, East Timor, Kosovo, Rwanda, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. Before joining the U.S. government, Power was the founding Executive Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School, a columnist for TIME, and a National Magazine Award-winning contributor to the Atlantic, the New Yorker, and the New York Review of Books.

Power earned a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She immigrated to the United States from Ireland at the age of nine and today lives in Concord, Massachusetts with her husband Cass Sunstein and their two young children.