Books & Articles

Books

Rwandan Women Rising
Duke University Press | 2017

In the spring of 1994, the tiny African nation of Rwanda was ripped apart by a genocide that left nearly a million dead. Neighbors attacked neighbors. Family members turned against their own. After the violence subsided, Rwanda’s women—drawn by the necessity of protecting their families—carved out unlikely new roles for themselves as visionary pioneers creating stability and reconciliation in genocide’s wake. Today, 64 percent of the seats in Rwanda’s elected house of parliament are held by women, a number unrivaled by any other nation.

While news of the Rwandan genocide reached all corners of the globe, the nation’s recovery and the key role of women are less well known. In Rwandan Women Rising, Swanee Hunt shares the stories of some seventy women—heralded activists and unsung heroes alike—who overcame unfathomable brutality, unrecoverable loss, and unending challenges to rebuild Rwandan society. Hunt, who has worked with women leaders in sixty countries for over two decades, points out that Rwandan women did not seek the limelight or set out to build a movement; rather, they organized around common problems such as health care, housing, and poverty to serve the greater good. Their victories were usually in groups and wide ranging, addressing issues such as rape, equality in marriage, female entrepreneurship, reproductive rights, education for girls, and mental health.

These women’s accomplishments provide important lessons for policy makers and activists who are working toward equality elsewhere in Africa and other post-conflict societies. Their stories, told in their own words via interviews woven throughout the book, demonstrate that the best way to reduce suffering and to prevent and end conflicts is to elevate the status of women throughout the world.

Order from Duke University Press or an independent, local bookstore

Praise for Rwandan Women Rising

“As Director of the Africa Bureau of the United Nations Development Program, I had the sad experience of visiting Rwanda after the genocide. Women with families torn apart bore their suffering with strength as they organized to be the catalyst for their country’s renewal. Today, 64 percent of Rwanda’s Parliament are women, and they provide exceptional leadership in regional institutions. For a dozen years, Swanee Hunt and I have been finding ways to raise the voices of women in my country. Rwandan Women Rising is a new guidebook for a journey toward justice, a journey beyond Liberia that holds the promise of global change, empowering women to create a more secure world for us all.”
—Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia

“This is an excellent book! It is an honest, authentic, and thoughtful representation of how Rwandan women experienced the narratives of their lives and country. Swanee Hunt’s unique voice and experience shows how the story of one nation becomes meaningful and applicable to the rest of the world. This is a page turner and an essential read for anybody interested in social change and women’s rights beyond Rwanda.”
—Zainab Salbi, Founder of Women for Women International, author, and media personality

“This is an extremely valuable contribution to the understanding of peacemaking and peace building. It is a powerful account by Rwandan women who rose to reform their nation’s society and government. They tell of their struggles, achievements, and still unfinished agendas. Ambassador Hunt draws on her extensive research and experience to provide a thoughtful analysis of women’s roles in conflict and reconciliation, with lessons well beyond Rwanda. This book is a work of love for Swanee Hunt, who for decades has befriended, encouraged, and supported these women and others like them who have stood up to violence and advocated for peace.”
—Princeton Lyman, Senior Advisor to the President of the U.S. Institute of Peace

“Ambassador Swanee Hunt is a remarkable, passionate, and courageous public servant for our country and the world. Her commitment to women’s rights, human rights, and human dignity is unsurpassed. In this timely new book, Rwandan Women Rising, Hunt uncovers lessons about how courageous women helped to rebuild a nation shattered by genocide. These are human stories worthy of our attention and admiration.”
—Ambassador Nicholas Burns, Harvard professor, former U.S. Under Secretary of State

Worlds Apart: Bosnian Lessons for Global Security
Duke University Press | 2011

Swanee Hunt tells of a well-meaning foreign policy establishment often deaf to the voices of everyday people. Its focus is the Bosnian War, but its implications extend to any situation that prompts the consideration of military intervention on humanitarian grounds.

Order from Duke University Press or an independent, local bookstore

Praise for Worlds Apart

“Swanee Hunt has written an intelligent, insightful, and highly readable account of the Bosnia conflict and America’s response to it. She brings to her analysis the passion appropriate to a firsthand account, together with a critical and sophisticated appreciation for the larger political context. Those interested in lessons important to future policy will not be disappointed. The book is an important addition to the literature on Bosnia, and on the continuing debate over appropriate circumstances for military intervention for humanitarian purposes.”
—Ambassador Robert Gallucci, former Dean, Georgetown School of Foreign Service

“The slaughter in Bosnia in the 1990s still haunts policymakers everywhere. With Worlds Apart, Swanee Hunt brings us all into the room alongside the decision-makers at the center of an international crisis, and simultaneously draws important lessons from those events for the resolution of future conflicts. It’s a compelling read for anyone motivated to learn those larger lessons from a tragedy that tested the will of the free world.”
—Senator John Kerry, Chair, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

“Good research. Brilliant analysis. Important book. These lessons about global security are especially urgent in light of today’s headlines.”
—Dan Rather, journalist and news anchor

“Ambassador Hunt has given us a bold, firsthand, outspoken book. It comes as close as we’ve gotten to answering the wherefores of Bosnia’s stark violence. Her juxtaposition of inside realities and outside misconceptions is convincing support for the broader lessons she offers us.”
—General John Galvin, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, and former Dean, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University

Half-Life of a Zealot
Duke University Press | 2006

Swanee’s life has lived up to her Texas-size childhood. Daughter of legendary oil magnate H. L. Hunt, she grew up in a household dominated by an arch-conservative patriarch who spawned a brood of colorful offspring. Her family was nothing if not zealous, and that zeal—albeit for more compassionate causes—propelled her into a mission that reaches around the world.

Order from Duke University Press or an independent, local bookstore

Praise for Half-Life of a Zealot

“Swanee Hunt is the woman behind the women, supporting their leadership throughout the world. Through them, she touches millions who will never have the privilege of browsing in a bookstore. This beautiful book tells why and how.”
— Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia

“Swanee Hunt’s life reads like a novel. Born into a powerful, conservative and patriarchal American family, a young girl grows up to use her part of that power to support the powerless, and to encourage peace and women’s leadership around the world. To discover the fascinating story in between, you must read ‘Half-Life of a Zealot.”
— Gloria Steinem

“For a dozen years I’ve watched Swanee Hunt transform her resources into possibilities for others. Her autobiography shows the creative nexus of personal values, political savvy, and global reform that has made hers a life well lived.”
— George Soros

This Was Not Our War
Duke University Press | 2004

Winner of the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Book Award for non-fiction, Ambassador Hunt’s first book shares amazing first-person accounts of twenty-six Bosnian women who are reconstructing their society following years of devastating warfare.

Order from Duke University Press or an independent, local bookstore

Praise for This Was Not Our War

“Replacing tyranny with justice, healing deep scars, exchanging hatred for hope—the women in This Was Not Our War teach us how.”
— President Bill Clinton

“I met Swanee Hunt as a diplomat in Vienna. I worked beside her as an activist in the Balkans. Now I know her as a writer, addressing a world sorely in need of her message of challenge and hope. Her words resonate with the authenticity of an observer and advocate who has devoted not only attention, time, and position, but also soul.”
— Queen Noor of Jordan, humanitarian activist for world peace and justice and best-selling author of Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life

“While victimization and suffering are all too real a feature of the lives of the women chronicled in Swanee Hunt’s This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace, the real story is one of struggle and moral courage. Here are women who have demonstrated for the world how to keep human dignity and compassion alive in the most hellish circumstances imaginable. Organizing to distribute food, fuel, and medicine to those in need, often across ethnic lines drawn by war mongers and demagogues. In This Was Not Our War, Swanee Hunt has collected and featured the voices of these women and through her skillful orchestration, she has lodged their stories in our hearts. Stories that ask hard questions and offer real lessons if we but heed them.”
— Citation from the L.L. Winship/PEN New England award ceremony, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, MA, April 10, 2005