My American Journey

New York: Random House, 1995. First Edition. First Printing [not stated, but per Random House verso convention--stated First Edition also means first printing]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. 25 cm. x, 643, [9] pages. Acid-free paper. Illustrations. DJ is price clipped. Colin Powell is the embodiment of the American dream. He was born in Harlem to immigrant parents from Jamaica. He knew the rough life of the streets. He overcame a barely average start at school. Then he joined the Army. The rest is history--Vietnam, the Pentagon, Panama, Desert Storm--but a history that until now has been known only on the surface. Here, for the first time, Colin Powell himself tells us how it happened, in a memoir distinguished by a heartfelt love of country and family, warm good humor, and a soldier's directness. MY AMERICAN JOURNEY is the powerful story of a life well lived and well told. It is also a view from the mountaintop of the political landscape of America. At a time when Americans feel disenchanted with their leaders, General Powell's passionate views on family, personal responsibility inspire hope and present a blueprint for the future. Colin Luther Powell (born April 5, 1937) is an American politician, diplomat and retired four-star general who served as the 65th United States Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. Powell was the first African-American Secretary of State. Powell served as the 16th United States National Security Advisor from 1987 to 1989 and as the 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993. During this time, he oversaw 28 crises, including the invasion of Panama in 1989 and Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf War against Iraq in 1990-1991. He formulated the Powell Doctrine which limits American military action unless it satisfies criteria regarding American national security interests, overwhelming force, and widespread public support. In retirement, Powell pursued a career as a public speaker, addressing audiences across the country and abroad. Joseph Edward Persico (July 19, 1930 - August 30, 2014) was an author and American military historian. From 1974 to 1977, he was primary speechwriter to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. In 1977, following the end of Rockefeller's tenure, Persico published My Enemy My Brother: Men and Days of Gettysburg, an historical work of non fiction covering the American Civil War. In 1979, he published a novel, The Spiderweb, and a further nonfiction study, Piercing the Reich: The Penetration of Nazi Germany by American Secret Agents During World War II. Three years later he produced The Imperial Rockefeller, a biography of his former employer. This was followed by a biography of Edward R. Murrow. In 1995, he co-wrote Colin L. Powell's autobiography My American Journey. Throughout the 1990s, Persico continued to produce historical books (Casey: From the OSS to the CIA and Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial) as well as numerous articles on American history. In November 2001, he published Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage and in 2004, Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918, World War I and Its Violent Climax. In May 2013, he published his last book, Roosevelt's Centurions, through Random House. This work was a #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • "A great American success story . . . an endearing and well-written book."