Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family [SIGNED]

Rice, Condoleezza

Verlag: Crown Archetype, New York, 2010

Beschreibung

New condition cream boards with gold spine lettering contained in a new condition non price-clipped photographic dust jacket. Includes Author's Note; A Note on Sources; Acknowledgments; and Index. Illustrated with both black & white and color photographs. Signed and inscribed by the author with black Sharpie on the second title page. "Condoleezza Rice has excelled as a diplomat, political scientist, and concert pianist. Her achievements run the gamut from helping to oversee the collapse of communism in Europe and the decline of the Soviet Union, to working to protect the country in the aftermath of 9/11, to becoming only the second woman - and the first black woman ever - to serve as Secretary of State. But until she was twenty-five, she never learned to swim. Not because she wouldn't have loved to, but because when she was a little girl in Birmingham, Alabama, Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor decided he'd rather shut down the city's pools than give black citizens access. Throughout the 1950's, Birmingham's black middle class largely succeeded in insulating their children from the most corrosive effects of racism, providing multiple support systems to ensure the next generation would live better than the last. But by 1963, when Rice was applying herself to her fourth-grade lessons, the situation had grown intolerable. Birmingham was an environment where blacks were expected to keep their heads down and do what they were told - or face violent consequences. That spring two bombs exploded in Rice's neighborhood amid a series of chilling Ku Klux Klan attacks. Months later, four young girls lost their lives in a particularly vicious bombing. So how was Rice able to achieve what she ultimately did? Her father, John, a minister and educator, instilled a love of sports and politics. Her mother, Angelena, a teacher, developed Condoleezza's passion for piano and exposed her to the fine arts. From both, Rice learned the value of faith in the face of hardship and the importance of giving back to the community. Her parents' fierce unwillingness to accept limits propelled her to the venerable halls of Stanford University, where she quickly rose through the ranks to become the university's second-in-command. An expert in Soviet and Eastern European affairs, she played a leading role in U.S. policy as the Iron Curtain fell and the Soviet Union disintegrated. Less than a decade later, at the apex of the hotly contested 2000 presidential election, she received the exiting news - just shortly before her father's death - that she would go on to the White House as the first female National Security Advisor. As comfortable describing lighthearted family moments as she is recalling the poignancy of her mother's battle with cancer and the heady challenge of going toe-to-toe with Soviet leaders, Rice holds nothing back in this remarkably candid telling. This is the story of Condeleezza Rice that has never been told; not that of an ultra-accomplished world leader but of a little girl - and a young woman - trying to find her place in a sometimes hostile world, and of two exceptional parents, an extended family, and a community - that made all the difference." - from the inner front and rear jacket flaps ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Condoleezza Rice was the sixty-sixth U.S. Secretary of State and the first black woman to hold that office. Prior to that, she was the first woman to serve as National Security Advisor. She is a professor at Stanford University. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 001870

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of ...

Verlag: Crown Archetype, New York

Erscheinungsdatum: 2010

Einband: Hardcover

Zustand: New

Zustand des Schutzumschlags: New

Signiert: Signed by Author(s)