A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide

samantha power

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction

‘A devastating indictment’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘An important book, a superb piece of reporting’ OBSERVER

‘With great narrative verve, and a sober and subtle intelligence, she carries us deep behind the scenes of history-in-the-making’ PHILIP GOUREVITCH
Why do leaders who vow ‘never again’ repeatedly fail to prevent genocide?

In her award-winning modern classic, Samantha Power presents a deeply researched and powerfully argued answer to this haunting question. Disproving claims that successive American leaders were unaware of genocidal horrors occurring around the world, Power tells the stories of courageous individuals who risked their careers and lives in an effort to save others, revealing how policy makers and outsiders alike ignored chilling warnings and rationalised inaction. A riveting account, A Problem From Hell has forever reshaped debates about foreign policy, while inspiring a new generation to raise their voices in the face of contemporary injustice.

Genres nonfictionhistorypoliticswaramerican historyafricainternational relationspolitical sciencesocial justiceworld history

656 pages, Paperback

First published March 15,2002

Literary awards

pulitzer prize, anisfield-wolf book award, j. anthony lukas book prize, arthur ross book award, national book critics circle award,

This edition

Format: 656 pages, Paperback
Published: June 25, 2003 by Harper Perennial GB
ISBN: 9780007172993
ASIN: 0007172990
Language

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Raphaël Lemkin

Raphaël Lemkin (1900 - 1959) was a lawyer of Polish-Jewish descent who is best known for coining the word genocide and initiating the Genocide Convention. Lemkin coined the word genocide in 1943 or 1944 from genos (Greek for family, tribe, or race) and -c...

About the author

samantha power

Samantha Power is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, writer, and academic. She is affiliated with the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School, holding the position of Anna Lindh Professor of Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy.

A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, she moved to the United States from Ireland at the age of nine. From 1993 to 1996 she covered the wars in the former Yugoslavia as a reporter for the U.S. News and World Report, the Boston Globe, and The New Republic. In 2003, Power won the Pulitzer Prize for her work “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide. She has contributed reporting to the Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. She spent 2005 to 2006 working in the office of Senator Barack Obama, then served as the Director of Multilateral Affairs at the National Security Council. She is currently the United States Ambassador to the United Nations in New York.