A Problem from Hell

As an ordinary hero, it is important to understand where humanity has succeeded and where we have failed.

This book is definitely about the latter. The book is a good read, but it is also really hard to read because it is about how we have failed to prevent atrocities. It’s so important because understanding where humanity has failed is the only way we will be able to prevent these sorts of atrocities in the future.

It is well written, which makes the difficult topic more accessible. 

Strong material for a college course that connected me to the why I served our country in Kosovo. Samantha Power helped me understand the U.S. history with our conflicts, both good and bad. This was a critical read to write nuanced characters from war zones. Each chapter is a different conflict. Amazingly, I was able to meet Samantha Power, former Ambassador to the UN and as a former journalist herself reporting from conflict areas, she’s the real deal. She walks the talk. 

I think every historian should read works by journalists in order to see how good writing can elevate a topic. Samantha Power's work on the history of genocide and the response of American foreign policy to various global incidences of genocide takes a dark and complex topic and makes it highly engaging and readable. Power’s work is informed by her past experience as a war correspondent in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Her work is important in that it is not simply a history of genocide from an observer’s standpoint, instead, she takes a moral position and makes a… show more.