Kissinger Volume I, Niall Ferguson
Kissinger Volume I, Niall Ferguson
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Kissinger: Volume I
1923-1968: The Idealist

Author: Niall Ferguson

Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner, Jeff Cummings

Unabridged: 33 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Published: 09/29/2015


Synopsis

The definitive biography of Henry Kissinger, based on unprecedented access to his private papersNo American statesman has been as revered and as reviled as Henry Kissinger. Once hailed as “Super-K”—the “indispensable man” whose advice has been sought by every president from Kennedy to Obama—he has also been hounded by conspiracy theorists, scouring his every “telcon” for evidence of Machiavellian malfeasance. Yet as Niall Ferguson shows in this magisterial biography, the idea of Kissinger as the ruthless arch-realist is based on a profound misunderstanding. Drawing not only on Kissinger’s hitherto closed private papers but also on documents from more than a hundred archives around the world, Ferguson argues that the true foundation of Kissinger’s thought is philosophical idealism—combined with history itself.The first half of Kissinger’s life is usually skimmed over as a quintessential tale of American ascent: the Jewish refugee from Hitler’s Germany who made it to the White House. But in this first of two volumes, Ferguson shows that what Kissinger achieved before his appointment as Richard Nixon’s national security adviser was astonishing in its own right. Toiling as a teenager in a New York factory, he studied indefatigably at night. He was drafted into the U.S. infantry and saw action at the Battle of the Bulge—as well as the liberation of a concentration camp—but ended his army career interrogating Nazis. It was at Harvard that Kissinger found his vocation. Having immersed himself in the philosophy of Kant and the diplomacy of Metternich, he shot to celebrity by arguing for “limited nuclear war.” Nelson Rockefeller hired him. Kennedy called him to Camelot. Yet Kissinger’s rise was anything but irresistible. Dogged by press gaffes and disappointed by “Rocky,” Kissinger seemed stuck—until a trip to Vietnam changed everything.The Idealist is the story of the single most important strategic thinker America has ever produced. It is also a political Bildungsroman, explaining how “Dr. Strangelove” ended up as consigliere to a politician he had always abhorred. Like Ferguson’s classic two-volume history of the House of Rothschild, Kissinger sheds dazzling new light on an entire era. The essential account of an extraordinary life, it recasts the cold war world.

About Niall Ferguson

Niall Ferguson is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University; the William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School; a senior research fellow of Jesus College, Oxford; and a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford. The bestselling author of Paper and Iron, The House of Rothschild, The Pity of War, The Cash Nexus, Empire, Colossus, and The War of the World, he is also a contributing editor of the Financial Times. Since 2003, he has written and presented three highly successful television documentary series for British television: Empire, American Colossus, and, most recently, The War of the World. He and his family divide their time between the United Kingdom and the United States.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Keenan

I saw Niall Ferguson promote his book at a Chicago Council on Global Affairs in October. His lecture certainly inspired me to buy the book and learn more about the subject, whom up until then I hadn't really known much about. Having no opinion allowed me to go into this book completely unbiased, and......more

This book's greatest strength was also its weakness. Ferguson is a master of historical detail - weaving discordant threads of things together to paint a coherent picture. Reading this I feel like I learned a ton about the United States in the early and middle stages of the Cold War. The only proble......more