Most of Glenn Kessler’s 244-page book narrates the first two years of Condoleezza Rice’s term as Secretary of State. But the Washington Post diplomatic correspondent also interviewed several of her University colleagues and friends during two trips to Stanford as a Hoover Institution Media Fellow.

Rice, who is technically a political science professor-on-leave, has said that she plans to return to Stanford when Bush leaves office in January 2009.

Her success at the University laid the framework for her introduction to then Texas Gov. George W. Bush in 1998. And Kessler claimed that her popularity as a black female assistant political science professor prompted Gerhard Casper to appoint her provost in 1993.

“He wanted to hire someone who was so young and a minority,” Kessler writes.

Kessler refers to Stanford several times in the first chapter of the book, which gives an overview of how “in a remarkably short period of time, Rice rose dramatically from ivory-tower academic to presidential advisor.”

The following are excerpts from Kessler’s book:

• “She stood out as a Republican on the largely liberal campus, and within the obscure field of Eastern block military studies, she stood out for being black, female and hawkish.”

• Rice was only an assistant professor when she was appointed provost. She had not been a dean or department chair.

• When Rice was provost, she met with students who were upset about cutbacks in ethnic theme houses at the Faculty Club. When “a young white woman raised her hand and questioned Rice’s commitment to equal opportunity,” Rice reportedly said, “I don’t need a lecture from anyone on racial sensitivity. I’ve been black all my life.”

• At a party on campus after she became Secretary of State, Rice went to the house of her closest male friend — Political Science Prof. Coit Blacker, director and senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. “Blacker, who is gay, wanted to show his partner how tight her behind is; he postulated that if he aimed a quarter at her butt, it would bounce off like a rocket. He was right. Rice, who was dancing, didn’t realize what he had done until everyone began laughing hysterically. She was flattered — and proud.”