Seasons of Her Life: A Biography of Madeleine Korbel Albright (Hardcover)

by Ann Blackman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The commencement speaker at Madeleine Albright's 1959 graduation from Wellesley College told the women at this prestigious East Coast school that their sterling education would serve them well. They were, said then Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy, "given the ideal preparation to serve at the very heart of the home." But the daughter of Czechoslovakian parents, whose diplomat father moved them to the U.S. when his country fell under Soviet control, was far too intellectually ambitious to be sent into domestic exile. Seasoned Time political reporter Ann Blackman's biography describes how Albright moved past the expectations of her time--and the challenges of being an immigrant--to become the highest-ranking woman in the history of U.S. politics when Bill Clinton picked her to be his second secretary of state.

Through a peripatetic childhood, marriage and divorce, and the increasing demands of her work as a Ph.D. candidate, professor, and United States ambassador to the United Nations, Albright is revealed to be driven and demanding, a savvy diplomat who has forged relationships with world leaders and with a small, sustaining group of powerful American women. Extensively researched and enlivened by anecdote, Seasons of Her Life is a fascinating study of a very unusual and dynamic woman's rise to power. --Maria Dolan

From Publishers Weekly
In the first biography of America's only female secretary of state, Blackman (Washington reporter for Time magazine) not only tells the life of a Czech refugee who becomes the highest-ranking woman in the U.S. government, but also weaves together three distinct subjects: the turbulent history of Czechoslovakia, the effect of the feminist movement on women of Albright's generation and the foreign policy process in the Carter and Clinton administrations. The daughter of a Czech diplomat, young Madeleine twice fled her native Prague, after the German invasion of 1939 and the Communist coup of 1948. Albright quickly adjusted to her new home in the U.S., graduating from Wellesley in 1959 and marrying publishing heir Joseph Albright. A wife and mother, Albright was also an academic and a "Washington lady," serving on boards and hosting dinner parties. After she made a name for herself as the U.S.'s plainspoken, media-savvy ambassador to the UN, Clinton appointed her as secretary of state. If her historic appointment was marred by the controversy over the revelation of her family's Jewish originAa subject thoroughly vetted by BlackmanAshe remains one of the most compelling figures in the Clinton administration. Albright herself gave one interview to the author, while many of her friends and associates cooperated as well. Blackman is a skillful reporter who has written a solid, balanced biography. Her subject emerges as strong and determined, if somewhat obsessed with her public image.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; First Edition edition (November 2, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684845644
• ISBN-13: 978-0684845647
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,010,170 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Was the editor out to lunch?, August 29, 1999

By A Customer

Does no one edit books anymore? This biography needed serious tightening and focus that a demanding editor could have provided -- someone to read it through and ask, "Why? How? Give me more!" A good editor would have cut down the section on Albright's father and demanded more about her formative experiences on Capitol Hill and on the National Security Council. The book also needed copy editing -- for instance, it gives the date of Albright becoming Secretary of State as 1997, not 1996, and has several other misuses such as "waiver" for "waver" and "bare" for "bear." This biography neither contributes enough to our understanding of Secretary Albright nor represents well the author's abilities as a journalist.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars engrossing, November 22, 1998

By A Customer

Even if you have only the slightest interest in foreign policy, you will find this substantial book about the first woman Secretary of State absorbing. This may not be a book for a foreign policy wonk, but then few of us are. It is a book for anyone curious about who Madeleine Albright is and where she comes from. A great holiday gift

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A long read, July 24, 2000

By	Erin O. (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

"Seasons of Her Life" is an interesting biography about Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The author of this book, Ann Blackman, did a wonderful job examining the finer details of Albright's life. Blackman interviewed numerous people, including President Clinton, and other close friends and colleagues of Albright, which helps the reader understand the importance of Albright in the worldwide community. Yet, all of these interviews and information are buried in the back of the book. Blackman spends too much time focusing on Albright's father, Josef Korbel, and how Madeleine Albright's family ended up in the United States. While this information is important in understanding why Albright believes in the politics that she believes in, it does not do the reader any good if they cannot get through the inital chapters. This is a well researched and through book on Albright's life, a decent book if you do not get lost in the history.