Sign-In
Cart
Lessons from the Edge: A Memoir
Hardcover
Biographies GeneralPolitical BiographiesGeneral Political Science
Publisher Price: $30.00
ISBN13: 9780358457541
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Published: Mar 15 2022
Pages: 416
Weight: 1.35
Height: 1.60 Width: 6.30 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An inspiring and urgent memoir by the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine--a pioneering diplomat who spent her career advancing democracy in the post-Soviet world, and who electrified the nation by speaking truth to power during the first impeachment of President Trump.
Marie Yovanovitch was at the height of her diplomatic career when it all came crashing down. In the middle of her third ambassadorship--a rarity in the world of diplomacy--she was targeted by a smear campaign and abruptly recalled from her post in Kyiv, Ukraine. In the months that followed, she endured personal tragedy while simultaneously being pulled into the blinding lights of the first impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump. It was a time of chaos and pain, for her and for the nation.
Yet Yovanovitch was no stranger to instability and injustice. Born into a family that had survived Soviet and Nazi terror, she first saw the corrosive effect of corruption in Somalia while cutting her teeth as a diplomat in the male-dominated world of the 1980s State Department. She was an eyewitness to the 1993 constitutional crisis in Russia and the street fighting in Moscow. And she rose to the top of her profession in the crucible of the former USSR, where she saw how President Vladimir Putin adeptly exploited corrupt leaders in neighboring countries and undermined their developing democracies.
Nowhere was Putin's aggression clearer than in Ukraine, where Russia meddled in elections, launched cyberattacks, peddled misinformation, illegally annexed Crimea, invaded the Donbas, and attacked Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea. But when Yovanovitch was abruptly recalled from her post and Ukraine's democratically elected president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, found himself set upon by Trump, it became clear just how dangerously close to the edge America itself had strayed.
Through it all, Yovanovitch tirelessly advocated for the Ukrainian people, while advancing U.S. interests and staying true to herself. When she made the courageous decision to participate in the impeachment inquiry--over the objections of the Trump administration--she earned the nation's respect, and her dignified response to the president's attacks won our hearts. She has reclaimed her own narrative, first with her lauded congressional testimony, and now with this powerful memoir: the dramatic saga of one woman's role at the vanguard of American foreign policy during a time of upheaval, for herself and for our country.
A Publishers Marketplace 2021 Buzz Book
A brilliant, engaging, and inspiring memoir from one of America's wisest and most courageous diplomats--essential reading for current policymakers, aspiring public servants, and anyone who cares about America's role in the world.--Madeleine K. Albright
First through the breach, Ambassador Yovanovitch showed Americans what courage and patriotism looks like. More than essential reading, Lessons from the Edge is thoroughly engaging and impossible to put down, showing us how an introverted career diplomat overcame the most vicious of smear campaigns to become a foreign service legend.--Congressman Adam Schiff
At turns moving and gripping and always inspiring ... a powerful testament to a uniquely American life well-lived and a remarkable career of dedicated public service at the highest levels of government.--Fiona Hill, New York Times best-selling author of There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century
2 different editions
Also available
Also in
Biographies General
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
Sheldrake, Merlin
Paperback
His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice
Samuels, Robert
Olorunnipa, Toluse
Hardcover
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
Kendi, Ibram X.
Blain, Keisha N.
Paperback
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
Elliott, Andrea
Paperback
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Isaacson, Walter
Paperback
Hola Papi: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons
Brammer, John Paul
Paperback
Burn the Page: A True Story of Torching Doubts, Blazing Trails, and Igniting Change
Roem, Danica
Hardcover
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
McDougall, Christopher
Paperback
Allegiance to Winds and Waters: Bicycling the Political Divides of the United States
Winkler-Morey, Anne
Paperback
This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America
Jerkins, Morgan
Paperback
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
Nezhukumatathil, Aimee
Hardcover
The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line: Untold Stories of the Women Who Changed the Course of World War II
Eder, Mari
Paperback
Prisoner's Dilemma: John Von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Puzzle of the Bomb
Poundstone, William
Paperback
The Collected Works of Jim Morrison: Poetry, Journals, Transcripts, and Lyrics
Morrison, Jim
Hardcover
The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation
Tubbs, Anna Malaika
Hardcover
All Creatures Great and Small: The Warm and Joyful Memoirs of the World's Most Beloved Animal Doctor
Herriot, James
Paperback
Standing at Water's Edge: A Cancer Nurse, Her Four-Year-Old Son and the Shifting Tides of Leukemia
Post-White, Janice
Paperback
Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden: Two Sisters Separated by China's Civil War
Li, Zhuqing
Hardcover
Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany
Buford, Bill
Paperback
Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, from Vietnam to Today
McNamara, Craig
Hardcover
Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies: And Other Rituals to Fix Your Life, from Someone Who's Been There
Schuster, Tara
Paperback
Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings
Grande, Reyna
Guiñansaca, Sonia
Hardcover
The Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter Who Saved Japan's Cherry Blossoms
Naoko Abe
Hardcover
The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World
Svensson, Patrik
Hardcover
Everyone You Hate Is Going to Die: And Other Comforting Thoughts on Family, Friends, Sex, Love, and More Things That Ruin Your Life
Sloss, Daniel
Hardcover
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
McNamara, Michelle
Paperback
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
Bourdain, Anthony
Paperback
Canvas One Line a Day: A Five-Year Memory Book (Yearly Memory Journal and Diary, Natural Canvas Cover)
Chronicle Books
Other
A Thousand Ways to Pay Attention: A Memoir of Coming Home to My Neurodivergent Mind
Schiller, Rebecca
Hardcover
Love People, Use Things: Because the Opposite Never Works
Millburn, Joshua Fields
Nicodemus, Ryan
Hardcover
Time of the Magicians: Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger, and the Decade That Reinvented Philosophy
Eilenberger, Wolfram
Paperback
The Unseen Body: A Doctor's Journey Through the Hidden Wonders of Human Anatomy
Reisman, Jonathan
Hardcover
United States of Grace: A Memoir of Homelessness, Addiction, Incarceration, and Hope
Duncan, Lenny
Hardcover
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Isaacson, Walter
Hardcover
The Woman They Could Not Silence: The Shocking Story of a Woman Who Dared to Fight Back
Moore, Kate
Paperback