From the former Secretary of State and bestselling author - a sweeping, definitive look at the birth, life and struggle of global democracy. From the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, to the ongoing struggle for human rights in the Middle East, Condoleezza Rice has been on the frontlines of history. In fact, as a child, she was an eyewitness to a third awakening of freedom, when her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, became the epicenter of the civil rights movement for Black Americans. In this book, Rice explains what these epochal events teach us about democracy. At a time when people around the world are wondering whether democracy is in decline, Rice shares insights from her experiences as a policymaker, scholar and citizen, in order to put democracy's challenges into perspective. For more than two hundred years, popular desire for self-government has been an engine of change reshaping the international system, as more and more countries with no history of democracy have established it. Today more than half of all countries qualify as democracies, and in the long run that number will continue to grow. Yet nothing worthwhile ever comes easily. While the ideal conditions for democratization are well known, they never exist. The question is not how to create perfect circumstances but how to move forward under difficult ones. No two transitions to democracy are the same because every country starts in a different place. Pathways diverge and sometimes circle backward. Timeframes for success can vary dramatically, and countries often suffer false-starts before getting it right.