Aung San Suu Kyi

Simply named, she is the daughter of Aung San and Ma Khin Kyi: Although the book is primarily a compendium of her writings—organized and edited by her husband—Aung San Suu Kyi is the major character, playing a vital role in the "second" struggle for an independent democratic Burma. She was born in Rangoon in June 1945; when she was two, her father was assassinated, and her mother became politically active, later becoming the Burmese ambassador to India. Aung San Suu Kyi accompanied her mother to New Delhi, where she first read Gandhi (she was a voracious reader). She was 17 when the generals staged their first coup in 1962. Between 1964 and 1967, she attended Oxford's St. Hugh's College, where she received a B.A. in philosophy, politics and economics. Between 1969 and 1971, she attended graduate school in New York, after which she worked at the United...