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A review by maggie_daydreaming
Madame President: The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf by Helene Cooper
4.0
I found this book fascinating, though kind of horrific in parts. The story of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was really inspiring to me and I think I learned a lot about the sorts of things people do when they are actually smart people who deserve to be presidents (aka not, er, actually maybe I won't go here).
And here follows my teacher-assigned summary, because why not?
Madame President is the story of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female president in Liberia. Ellen was born into a turbulent society: the ruling “Congo people” oppressed the native “country people,” there was terrible economic inequality, and the government was corrupt and had been for as long as anyone could remember. Determined to combat these problems, she went to college in the US in between various government jobs, where she kept getting in trouble for her angry speeches against the government. She also worked for the World Bank, which allowed her to have a safe home and a job in Washington, DC when the government was overthrown and, later, there was a decades-long civil war in which both sides did atrocious things, both to opposing soldiers and to ordinary civilians. After the civil war finally ended, Ellen returned to Liberia and ran for president. No one thought she would win, but the Liberian women managed to do something American women still haven’t been able to: they elected her, a woman, the president. She went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize, rebuild her country, and get all debt against the Liberian government forgiven. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf refused to be limited by the constraints society put on her and constantly worked to make her country - and the world - a better place.
And here follows my teacher-assigned summary, because why not?
Madame President is the story of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female president in Liberia. Ellen was born into a turbulent society: the ruling “Congo people” oppressed the native “country people,” there was terrible economic inequality, and the government was corrupt and had been for as long as anyone could remember. Determined to combat these problems, she went to college in the US in between various government jobs, where she kept getting in trouble for her angry speeches against the government. She also worked for the World Bank, which allowed her to have a safe home and a job in Washington, DC when the government was overthrown and, later, there was a decades-long civil war in which both sides did atrocious things, both to opposing soldiers and to ordinary civilians. After the civil war finally ended, Ellen returned to Liberia and ran for president. No one thought she would win, but the Liberian women managed to do something American women still haven’t been able to: they elected her, a woman, the president. She went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize, rebuild her country, and get all debt against the Liberian government forgiven. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf refused to be limited by the constraints society put on her and constantly worked to make her country - and the world - a better place.