Story Circle Network

Austin Chapter
Reader's Guide

November 2004

Madam Secretary: A Memoir
Madeleine Albright

Albright proposes to "combine the personal with policy" in these memoirs, a sensible narrative strategy, considering her emblematic struggles as a working mother breaking through the glass ceiling of the foreign policy establishment to become U.N. ambassador and secretary of state...

  1. On page xi, Madeleine Albright writes:
    "I wanted to combine the personal with policy and describe not just what happened but also why and how events were influenced by human relationships."
    Did both aspects of this memoir interest you? (the personal and the policy) Did her description of the relationships of the participants behind the events broaden your understanding of happenings during the Clinton era?

  2. What unique abilities did Albright bring to her positions as U.N. Ambassador and Secretary of State? What aspects of her childhood and young adulthood prepared her for such a distinguished life?

  3. How well do you believe Madeleine was able to juggle motherhood and career? Do you resonate with her struggles? Do you believe her husband resented her rising professional status? How did divorce change the course of her life?

  4. What do you think of Madeleine's personal style of diplomacy? Did you find her candor to world leaders courageous and sometimes outrageous? Some examples are: (Chairman Kim of North Korea - page 463, Iraqi Ambassador - page 273, Korean representative at the U.N. page 456, U.N. concerning Cuban fighter pilots - pages 204 and 205). Notice the cartoons on pages 205 and 332.

  5. Albright writes that her most painful life experience was her divorce and that her saddest experience was the discovery that three of her grandparents died in a concentration camp. Comment on the media's handling of the discovery of her Jewish heritage.

  6. Madeleine Albright is a colorful and controversial person. Did you enjoy her humor? Do you admire her?

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