Madeleine Albright : A Twentieth-Century Odyssey

Rating:
Summary: A moving, engrossing story of an amazing woman.
Review: Grab a tissue and get ready for the first chapters of this wonderful book. Dobbs succeeds not only in conveying the confusion and pathos of Albright's early life, but also in giving readers a vivid, heart-rending view of one family's devastation as it confronted the Third Reich. The Korbel's (Madeleine's parents) narrowly escape death, rebuilding their life in America. The story of Madeleine's assimilation as an American and her marriage into one of the country's most powerful media families is nearly as riveting as her rise to professional power in Washington, D.C. Dobbs knows how to get the inside facts, tell a great story and give enough analysis to be insightful but not overbearing. The parts which deal with the revelation of Albright's Jewish heritage, and Dobbs' confrontation with Albright about her history, are fascinating. The additional intrigues around possible stolen art work turn parts of this great biography into a good mystery as well. Thank you to Michael Dobbs for being bold and fair in revealing the inside story of one of the most amazing women of our time.

Rating:
Summary: Highly informative and laced with history
Review: Madeleine Albright: A Twentieth Century Odyssey was a joy to read. It was well-written, in precise, easyily read prose. The research job was obviously fantastic, as Dobbs uncovered facts that even Madeleine was at least at one time unaware of. This history of Madeleine Albright's life is detailed and amazing. She is truly a person to be admired. Her history is laced unremovably with the history of the countries she lived in. Her native Czeckoslovkia underwent Hitler, the rise and fall of Communism, and later the dis-integration of the country into the Czeck Republic and Slovakia. Her political views were shaped by Munich and the appeasement, by the consequences of inaction rather than by the consequences of action, such as the Vietnam War, the one event which primarily shaped the foriegn-policy views of her colleagues. Her father delivered her and her immediate family from Hitler, as they were Jewish. Much of the rest of her family perished in the death camps. The Albrights moved to the United States and converted to Catholicism as a protective measure. Madeleine was drived by an incredible urge to assimilate, to please, and to succeed. Sometimes, these instincts came into conflict with one another. Dr. Albright is an amazing woman. I have seen her speak at a college in my area about terrorism and about the effects of September 11, and the myth of a bipolar world. She talked about women's rights and about the Balkans War. She said that "a country that lives only for itself is like a person that lives only fo himself." This defines her foreign policy image. I highly recommend this book, both for its research and for its subject matter.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and masterfully written
Review: Michael Dobbs is the journalist who broke the story of Madeleine Albright's Jewish roots: his new book on America's first female Secretary of State is fascinating and masterfully written - THE book on how a Czech refugee girl made it to become the most powerful woman in the U.S. government. Dobbs has done a great deal of legwork, uncovering a number of new and revealing facts about Albright's past and her role model father.

Based on his extensive research Dobbs now argues that Albright almost certainly knew she was from a Jewish family - many of whom perished in the Holocaust - well before she has said that she did. Like many immigrants from Europe, Joseph Korbel, her father, wanted to put a fire wall between the tragic past and his new identity in the West. He instilled that drive for a new identity in his ambitious daughter, Dobbs says, and it propelled her to the top.

In light of the current Kosovo situation, with Albanian refugees fleeing their homeland in a harkening back to WWII, this first-rate book is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to understand the mind set of the Secretary of State and why we are involved in Kosovo.

Rating:
Summary: Remarkable Woman, Remarkable Story
Review: This is a beautifully written book on the life history of Mrs. Albright. I knew little about her prior to reading this, and the book filled in what I wished to know. I was aware that her father was a mentor to Condy Rice and actually am interested in knowing more about him, now.

Actually, I wasn't aware on buying the book that there was so much focus on her Jewish relatives, and found myself relatively uninterested in Mr. Dobbs's efforts to inform the Secretary. For every one of us interested in distant relatives of whom we know little, there is one of us who isn't.

This book was a pleasure to read even without the Secretary's co-operation. However, for those interested more in her political development than her personal history, a look at other books would be suggested.

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional and fascinating- a great reading group book!
Review: What a fabulous book! I couldn't put it down. Having read this book, I have a new appreciation for Madeleine Albright as a woman who raised her children and then started a career which took her to the top. Dobbs is deeply sensitive to this, and you get the feeling that even as she climbs the ladder to her ultimate success, she wonders whether she is up to the job that lies ahead. Don't we women all have this experience at one time or another, even as we stop what we are doing to raise our children? Dobbs seems to have presented Albright with the only family tree she has even seen. He found branches of her family she never knew existed. The tragedy which befell her family in the Holocaust is not in vain - at the end of a century which molded and shaped her family, she has found them all again. A riveting story and it's beautifully written - I highly recommend this book.