Picador USA
Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Hear
Key Metrics
- Kim Ghattas
- Picador USA
- Paperback
- 9781250044068
- 8.2 X 5.4 X 1.1 inches
- 0.75 pounds
- Biography & Autobiography > Political
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
THE FIRST INSIDE ACCOUNT TO BE PUBLISHED ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON'S TIME AS SECRETARY OF STATE, ANCHORED BY GHATTAS'S OWN PERSPECTIVE AND HER QUEST TO UNDERSTAND AMERICA'S PLACE IN THE WORLD.
In November 2008, Hillary Clinton agreed to work for her former rival. As President Barack Obama's secretary of state, she set out to repair America's image around the world--and her own. For the following four years, BBC foreign correspondent Kim Ghattas had unparalleled access to Clinton and her entourage, and she weaves a fast-paced, gripping account of life on the road with Clinton in The Secretary.
With the perspective of one who is both an insider and an outsider, Ghattas draws on extensive interviews with Clinton, administration officials, and players in Washington as well as overseas, to paint an intimate and candid portrait of one of the most powerful global politicians. Filled with fresh insights, The Secretary provides a captivating analysis of Clinton's brand of diplomacy and the Obama administration's efforts to redefine American power in the twenty-first century.
Populated with a cast of real-life characters, The Secretary tells the story of Clinton's transformation from popular but polarizing politician to America's envoy to the world in compelling detail and with all the tension of high stakes diplomacy. From her evolving relationship with President Obama to the drama of WikiLeaks and the turmoil of the Arab Spring, we see Clinton cheerfully boarding her plane at 3 a.m. after no sleep, reading the riot act to the Chinese, and going through her diplomatic checklist before signing on to war in Libya--all the while trying to restore American leadership in a rapidly changing world.
Viewed through Ghattas's vantage point as a half-Dutch, half-Lebanese citizen who grew up in the crossfire of the Lebanese civil war, The Secretary is also the author's own journey as she seeks to answer the questions that haunted her childhood. How powerful is America really? And, if it is in decline, who or what will replace it and what will it mean for America and the world?
Author Bio
After twenty years as a BBC journalist, it was also time to say goodbye to this great institution. I am now a contributing writer at the Atlantic magazine and a non-resident senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, shuttling between Beirut and Washington D.C.
I was born and raised in Beirut, on the front lines of the Lebanese civil war. Searching for answers about the chaos around me is what made me want to become a journalist at the age of 13.
I started my journalism career in 1998, as an intern in Beirut at the local English-language newspaper The Daily Star. Within a couple of years, I was reporting for the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant as well as the Financial Times and the BBC. I spent my time on the road covering the Middle East: reporting from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and of course Lebanon. In 2006, my BBC colleagues and I covered the war between Israel and Hezbollah and we won an Emmy for international news coverage.
In 2008, I left my posting in Beirut, the city that made me a journalist, to become the BBC's State Department correspondent based in Washington. For six years, I travelled regularly with Secretary of States: Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. I've had the honor of being recognized by publications like Monocle for my State Department reporting.
My front row seat to the making of American foreign policy led me to write a book, The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power, which became a New York Times best seller. The book includes personal reflections about being a child in war-torn Lebanon, growing up with questions about America.
My work has been published in The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, Time magazine and The Washington Post. I regularly speak on American television and radio, and at special events, on Middle East issues and American foreign policy.
I serve on the Board of Trustees of the American University of Beirut, my alma mater and a beacon of intellectual engagement in the Middle East. I am also on the board of directors ARIJ, an organisation dedicated to training and supporting investigative journalists in the Arab world.
On this website, you’ll find a small selection of my favorite articles and reports from my two decades years as a journalist, covering the Middle East and American foreign policy. You can also follow me on Twitter.
My other passion is food and cooking. I promised myself that one day I would write about food or open a restaurant.
Source: kimghattas.com
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