Madam Secretary: A Memoir

MEMIORS
Look at the subject then read on. Most of the reviews on Madeleine were negative, but personally think the book is really good. Madeleine's memior is was much more candid then Margaret's memiors which more textbook. Both had twins, Madeleine had 2 girls that look the same, Margaret had boy and girl. Madeleine had a divorce and Margaret didn't. I could go on forever, but I stop here. I hope Madeleine comes to my town's book store to sign her book for the customers. Thank you.

It all started with admiring her as a politician, then my admiration changed to loving to read as much as i could find about her FINALLY i started having a crush on he her to fall in love with her to a great sexual desire. I would give up years of my life just to spend a memorable night with her , she isn't only beautiful she is gorgeous and sexy. I DESIRE HER VERY VERY MUCH in spite of her age. I THINK SHE IS THE SEXIEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD.

Albright gives an interesting and detailed account of recent history and I found myself learning much more about events of the Clinton era than I did at the time they were happening. Also, interesting to read the personal accounts of Albright's life, and to hear all that she did to bring up women's rights as a major goal in international relations.

I found this book fabulous! The book clearly reflects a woman's point of view, and intertwines Madam Albright's personal and professional journey with historical events.

Albright speaks candidly of how, as a woman, she navigated in a man's world. I highly recommend this book, particularly to young women.

If your interesting in knowing the truth about one of the 1990s most important foreign policy personalities, this book won't necessarily help. While it is an easy read with lots of details about what was happening behind closed doors, Ms. Albright also spun it to her own advantages. But that is to be expected. Considering her harsh handing at the hands of the right wing, it is good to get her point of view.

It is interesting to read the biography of Secretaries of State. One can always see their personal stories in the policies they advocate. This is no different. Her personal story seems to have heavily influence her policies. The book is an excellent story and very hard to put down. A definite page turner.

This tape provides a very good personal history of her as a person but, unfortunately, very little with respect to analysis of policies and issues when she was foreign secretary. There is very little discussion as to how and why major foreign policy decisions were made, interaction of the main players in these decisions, what goals (short and long term) were and other aspects involving foreign policy decisions and strategies. All these should have been discussed. Is this not why someone buys a book like this to begin with? It's as if the book defeats its purpose.

Powerful and smart, persistent and captivating. All that sounds very convincing. The things that is missing - making money from the conflicts and destruction.

One could not find in this book a single word about making money on the post-war privatization in what used to be Serbia. They targeted 200+ publicly owned production facility but only couple of tanks. Then, Madam Secretary's firm was making sure, that its clients could get those factories for peanuts. Nobody could account for all activities by Albright Group LLC in the world, but its latest role in "helping" Kuwait with Iraqi debt is well covered in the latest edition of "The Nation" magazine
(...)
Someone will call it politics, others will call it business. Billion here, billion there - who cares, US taxpayers will cover all those debts and pay the price for the high ranking war profiteering.

Madam Secretary does a good job explaining how she balanced her career with her personal life. It's truly an inspirational story (especially for women). If you are all about the Clinton era, you MUST read it.

I usually pick up books like this with excellent intentions and then rarely finish them. Not with this book! It is a fascinating and well written book. Particularly for those of us who don't spend all our time reading densely written academic speak.

I was looking forward to this book as research material for the Clinton era, the Kosovo Campaign in particular.
What a mistake.
As an example of revisionist self-congradulation, 'Madam' Secretary has produced a well-written biography. But where is the self-criticism one should expect from a Secretary of State?
She certainly admits some hard decisions, but no wrong ones (at least, not by her). We see again and again that inter-state (and intra-state) conflict muddies ethics, morals, and national interest. I just don't see how a political autobiography could come away so squeaky clean. Now that I've read the book, I think I can use it to wash the dishes (although it's a little heavier than a bar of soap).
Her self-portrayal as a feminine icon flies in the face of global reality and conjures comparisions to Halle Berry's Oscar Speech. There are plenty of hard-working (and really self-sacrificing) women out there in greater positions of relative power: Look towards India, for example. 'Madam' Secretary doesn't cut it on an international scale.
Politicians aren't saints. You know it, I know it. Politicians are faced with terrible realities of power, lobbying, and making decisions that always hurt a lot of people. The social reality is that showering doesn't remove the stink. Washing their clothes doesn't clean the stains. Hillary Clinton knows it - at least her bio was interesting. Reading 'Madam' Secretary's is like reading Chicken Soup for the Political Soul. Read someone else for the realism.
If you want to sink your teeth into something substantial, go for one of Kissinger's, Clinton's (either one) or Roosevelt's bios (FDR, not Teddy).
If you want to sink your teeth into something that's so sweet it'll make them rot, try 'Madam'.

This was our book club selection. Most members, all well educated women, didn't finish it as were bored to tears. I finished it but found it like reading 500 pages of holiday newsletter. I was disappointed as was anticipating an interesting discussion of issues and history, but instead tedium.

Sometimes a title says it all, and Madam Secretary is essentially the sum and substance of Albright's claim to fame. She was the first woman Secretary of State and probably one of the worst Secretaries of any department in any era. Admittedly she worked for a morally bankrupt man who governed based upon what the polling data showed, but this book reveals that the ship of State was rudderless and without a compass.

If the titles "Clueless" and "Sleepwalking through History" weren't already taken, they would have been much more apt descriptions of Albright's tenure in such serious posts as Secretary of State or Ambassador to the UN.

The initial chapters were interesting in her personal history as her family moved from Czechoslovakia and to the USA, but it was all downhill after that.

I kept turning hundreds of pages looking for some substance or recognition of her true impact on world events but couldn't find any. Her refusal to be "baited" at the UN and defending the USA by rabid haters of the USA and instead making jokes about how it made her feel "young again" was telling. She glosses over the North Korean violation of the "framework" negotiated between the new Clinton Administration in 1993 and 1994 by the peanut farmer and never acknowledges that this "framework" was violated by the North Koreans from day one, but somehow blames the Bush Administration for calling an end to this charade by revealing the fact that the North Koreans never lived up to their commitments. The bombings by al Qaeda of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania the year that Osama declared war on Western Civilization? No connection that she had anything to do with it or the impact of the US tepid response. What about Clinton hiding behind her skirt and sending her out to defend him when he lied to her and the nation about Monica? It was all Ken Starr's fault. Arafat lying through his teeth about Palestinian terrorism and using the White House as his platform? Not a problem. Rwanda and the greatest genocide in modern history since Pol Pot as hundreds of thousands of Tutsi's were hacked to death? Boys will be boys, and besides, the UN didn't want to get involved. Any thought about how Saddam built billions of dollars of palaces under the Oil for Food program that she supported? An audit program? What and upset the French who were collecting the billions involved in the program thru Paris banks?. Mon Dieu!!

This book is much more spin than substance, but I actually think that she doesn't recognize the difference. If you want to know why we were so highly thought of by the enemies of freedom, you can read all about it here. We were very, very nice when we should have been very, very determined. If you want to know just how the world became such a dangerous place on her watch, you might be better off saving the dollar I paid for this book and asking some wino on a park bench. Most have them have a better understanding of the real world. The Freudian analysis of this book's title is that she may have been the biggest Madam in Foggy Bottom while she was in charge of the house located there called the State Department. The problem is that she is probably unaware of the fact that it may not necessarily be a compliment.

This is almost as good as Mrs. clintons book 'witness to Bills cheating or whatever it was called. This book details how our greatest secretary of state since Colin Powell betrayed the serbs and helped to murder more then 5000 innocent civilians.
Inside this book you will find the following exciting accounts:
1) How Albright was offended by her critics calling her 'halfbright'.
2) How albright was the 'daughter of munich' and the sympahty sourounding this helped her get ahead.
3)How Albright was helpful in giving Serbia no options so that she could flex American muscle and bomb civilians.
4) How albright decided that Osama wasnt a big enough threat to put american resources into finding and gave up on capturing him in the Sudan.
5) How Albright helped the Koreans secure lasting peace in Korea so the North could continue a nuclear weapons program.
These are among the other great revelations in this excellent book on how American foreign policy should allways be conducted so that we will one day be ruled by a Chinamen who is devoted to Islam.