Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell by Karen DeYoung

 

Title:  Soldier:  The Life of Colin Powell

Author:  Karen DeYoung

Narrated by:  Coleen Marlo

Publisher: Random House Audio

Length: Approximately 23 hours and 12 minutes

Source: Checked out with Libby through the Kewaunee Public Library.  Thank-you!

What modern day political or military figure would you like to learn more about?  I was in middle school during the Gulf War when I first heard of Colin Powell.  I admired him and his career after that, but I realized when he passed away that I did not know that much about his life. 

Solider:  The Life of Colin Powell tells the story of Colin’s life from his birth through his role as Secretary of State in the George W. Bush administration.  I learned a lot from this book.  I thought it was very interesting that Powell’s parents were Jamaican immigrants in the Bronx and that very much shaped his personality and ethics. He had very different views on race because of his parent’s heritage.   He joined the ROTC while earning his geology degree in college and joined the Army after graduating.  He loved serving his country and found that he was able to rise up the ranks in the army through his abilities.  He eventually became a four-star General, the National Security Advisor, the Joint Chief of Staff Chairman, and finally the Secretary of State.  He served in Vietnam and successfully lead the military through Desert Storm in the early nineties.

Listening to this audiobook was a good review of modern U.S. history.  Powell was a very popular person in the United States and was an independent before becoming Republican in 1995.  He considered running for President and I know my Dad always regretted that he didn’t as he really wanted to vote for him.   Powell had a very successful career which only seemed to have a downside when he became the Secretary of State.  The George W. Bush administration had a lot of internal problems that hampered Powell.  After Powell gave his speech to the United Nations calling for war in Iraq, he faced a lot of political fall-out when no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.  It was a very unfortunate end to his otherwise great career.  It was also very un-Powell like as he had always stressed being prepared for such action and making sure the United States was successful and had an exit strategy.  He was a good soldier overall and always followed the direction of his commander in chief.

I enjoyed that author Karen DeYoung interviewed a wide swath of people for this book and was able to put together a riveting biography.

I enjoyed listening to this on audiobook, except for one item.  The audiobook was obviously originally on CD as it kept saying, “end of Disc X” all of the way through the audio.  I thought this was very annoying.