"A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize! An impassioned critique of America's repeated failure to stop genocides around the world, from a New York Times bestselling author and former US Ambassador to the UN. "An angry, brilliant, fiercely useful, absolutely essential book." --New Republic In her Pulitzer Prize-winning interrogation of the last century of American history, former Ambassador and current Harvard professor Samantha Power asks the haunting question: Why do American leaders who vow "never again" repeatedly fail to stop genocide? Drawing upon exclusive interviews with Washington's top policy makers, access to declassified documents, and her own reporting from the modern killing fields, Power provides the answer in "A Problem from Hell", a groundbreaking work that shows how decent Americans inside and outside the government refused to get involved despite chilling warnings, and tells the stories of the courageous Americans who risked their careers and lives in an effort to get the United States to act.
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Community Reviews
This book took me years to get through, both due to its length and the weight of its subject. It is not an easy or light read but it was an enlightening one. It will anger you but will also equip you to see this problem with new eyes. I learned so much from reading it, underlined seemingly every other paragraph, and shook a fist at the heavens many many times. It will give you an unflinching portrait of the role (and often times the lack of a role) the United States has played in preventing and stopping genocides.
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