Condoleezza Rice An American Life, Elisabeth Bumiller
Condoleezza Rice An American Life, Elisabeth Bumiller
3 Rating(s)
List: $22.50 | Sale: $15.75
Club: $11.25

Condoleezza Rice: An American Life
A Biography

Author: Elisabeth Bumiller

Narrator: Kimberly Farr

Unabridged: 14 hr 13 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/11/2007

Synopsis

Condoleezza Rice has until now remained a mystery behind an elegant, cool veneer. In this stunning new biography, New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller peels back the layers and presents a revelatory portrait of the first black female secretary of state and President George W. Bush’s national security adviser on September 11, 2001. The audiobook relates the personal voyage of a young black woman out of the segregated American South and also tells the sweeping story of a tumultuous half-century in the nation’s history.

In CONDOLEEZZA RICE: AN AMERICAN LIFE, we see Rice’s Alabama childhood in Birmingham when it was the central battleground of the civil rights movement; her education in foreign policy; and her confrontations with minorities and women while she was provost at Stanford University in the 1990s. Examining the current administration, Bumiller explores in depth Rice’s extraordinarily close relationship with George W. Bush, her battles with Vice President Dick Cheney, and her indirect but crucial role in the ousting of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Bumiller shows us Rice missing clues to the September 11 attacks and waging war against Saddam Hussein. In addition, we watch Rice’s recent attempts to salvage the ruins of the Iraq policy she helped create and to avoid war with Iran.

Drawing on extensive interviews with Rice and more than 150 others, Bumiller explores Rice’s effectiveness as national security adviser and secretary of state, her longtime political ambitions, and her future on the world stage.

About The Author

Elisabeth Bumiller, a Washington reporter for The New York Times, was a Times White House correspondent from September 10, 2001, to 2006. She is the author of May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India and The Secrets of Mariko: A Year in the Life of a Japanese Woman and Her Family. Bumiller lives in the Washington, DC, area with her husband, Steven R. Weisman, and two children.Kimberly Farr has appeared on Broadway, at the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Roundabout Theatre, Playwright's Horizons, and the American Place. She created the role of Eve in Arthur Miller's first and only musical, Up from Paradise, which was directed by the author. She appeared with Vanessa Redgrave in the Broadway production of The Lady from the Sea. She has also acted in regional theaters from Los Angeles to New Haven, Connecticut, including the original production of The 1940's Radio Hour at Washington, DC's Arena Stage.

Reviews

Goodreads review by John

Condoleezza Rice was America's first black National Security Adviser and first black female Secretary of State. One of this biography's strengths is its focus Rice's early life as the daughter of a minister in Birmingham, Alabama under Bull Connor. Her childhood was somewhat secure in a striving, mi......more

Goodreads review by Lucynell

Though this was published in 2007 and is therefore in need of an update I consider it pretty much essential and that's not only because of Condoleezza Rice herself. What's even more fascinating is the scarily intimate look at the inner-workings of the most dangerous American administration (by circu......more

Goodreads review by Chris

I listened to the audio book and it's pretty good and tells some great stories about Condaleeza Rice and how she rose to her positions of prominence. I learned many things about Condaleeza that I did not know. I definitely recommend this book.......more

Goodreads review by Raven

My Dad gave me a couple of Condoleeza Rice's books, so I read this one first to have some context and understanding of her thought over the term of her public service during the Bush administrations. (I think there'd be a significant evolution of her positions from the National Security Advisor year......more

Goodreads review by Andrew

It's unfortunate to read this book in 2022, nearly fifteen years after its publication, because we know how things turned out. We know that Rice's legacy is a complicated mix; we know that she has not run for office, despite the significant hints at the end of the book (though she did agree to be Pe......more

Quotes

“Powerful . . . an intimate portrait of Condoleezza Rice that will set the standard for all future writing about this fascinating and complex woman.”
–Doris Kearns Goodwin

“A compelling portrait of the country’s first black female secretary of state . . . a cautionary tale about the gap between ambitious presidential appointees and their unwillingness to speak truth to power.”
–The New York Times

“In this singular, fascinating, well-reported, and well-written book, one of our finest journalists shows us heretofore unseen facets of the Condoleezza Rice story.”
–Michael Beschloss, author of Presidential Courage

“Measured, insightful and comprehensive . . . [Elisabeth Bumiller] brings a keen eye to Rice.”
–The New York Times Book Review

“A careful, well-documented new.”
–Los Angeles Times

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List