The first female Secretary of State of the United States, Madeleine Korbel Albright, offers this personal memoir that explores her family history as well as Czechoslovakian history. Charting the dense history of the country prior, during, and after the Second World War, Albright narrates a detailed and informative account. By incorporating her own memories and accounts from multiple individuals she manages to showcase the state of affairs during this period. Her father Josef Korbel being a Czech diplomat at the time Albright’s personal life intertwined with the political sphere of Czechoslovakia. Thus, her memoir is as much a personal account as it is the history of the Czechoslovaks.
The memoir incorporates extensive research to offer more clarity to significant moments in Czechoslovakia history. Thus, explores the complex history of Prague that is less known outside of the country or rather by foreigners for that matter. Accordingly, Albright’s father being a supporter of the Czechoslovak government in exile she gives a glimpse into key figures such as Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Beneš. Henceforth showcases how the Nazi invasion and the country operating as government-in-exile affected her private sphere and the public sphere. In essence, the story becomes an immigrant narrative, as the Korbel family had to integrate into British society from 1939 to 1945.
Additionally, while the memoir demonstrates the lives of exiled leaders and Czech immigrants during World War II it also discloses more about her heritage. Albright reveals the family history surrounding their religion as they were of Jewish heritage and later converted to Catholicism. In consequence, it shows how the hidden truth about her Jewish background held so much weight during that period. This revelation that only came out in her adulthood resonates and has more significance seeing part of her family were victims of the Holocaust. Thus, illustrates the intensity of the political struggle and the tensions in Czechoslovakia that forced major choices to be made for and by the people.
