In the first biography of Condoleezza Rice since her appointment as secretary of state, award-winning Newsweek editor Marcus Mabry explores the contradictions-personal and political-of the most powerful black woman in the history of American politics

Condoleezza Rice is an unprecedented woman. Before becoming the first female African-American secretary of state, she was the first woman to be national security advisor to the president of the United States. And before that, she was the first woman, the first minority, and the youngest person ever to be named provost of Stanford University. Yet for all her ceiling-shattering accomplishments and historic rise to prominence and power, Condi Rice remains enigmatic, even sphinx-like, a major player on the American political scene who has somehow escaped the in-depth personal scrutiny characteristic of contemporary politics.

Who is Condoleezza Rice? In this multilayered portrait, Marcus Mabry penetrates the mysteries surrounding one of the most controversial and fascinating women of our time and explores what price she has paid for her success. While researching this biography, Mabry interviewed her family, friends, and neighbors from her childhood in Birmingham; peers from her years at the University of Denver and Notre Dame; colleagues, allies, and adversaries from Stanford and Washington-and Condoleezza Rice herself. The author, who has had a similar background to his subject-like her, he is African American with roots in the South, a product of Stanford, and a student of international relations-uses this perspective in his interpretation of her life and work, drawing on his personal and professional background as well as his skills as a journalist to uncover a Condoleezza Rice the world has never known. The result is the most comprehensive portrait ever reported of this powerful woman.