All of us face hard choices in our lives,' Hillary Rodham Clinton writes at the
start of this personal chronicle of years at the centre of world events. 'Life i
s about making such choices. Our choices and how we handle them shape the people
we become.' In the aftermath of her 2008 presidential run, she expected to retu
rn to representing New York in the Unites States Senate. To her surprise, her fo
rmal rival for the Democratic Party nomination, newly elected President Barack O
bama, asked her to serve in his administration as Secretary of State. This memoi
r is the story of the four extraordinary and historic years that followed, and t
he hard choices that she and her colleagues confronted.