The Inevitability of Tragedy
Henry Kissinger and His World

"[For] Kissinger history is more like one damned thing after another, unpredictable and uncontrollable: the basis of foreign policy has to be a pursuit of the national interest because, in an uncertain world, that is the anchor of stability" (xv). Realpolitik often gets a bad rep as it goes against......more

Interesting overview of Kissinger's realpolitik philosophy contextualized by his childhood in Nazi Germany and by fellow German-Jewish emigres escaping Hitler. Indeed, half of the book (the best half) focuses on the thought of the brilliant and combative philosophers Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt, and......more

An interesting book but not a go-to if you want to learn a lot about HK specifically. As one other reviewer on here, it's really more a history of the intellectual world of anti-utopian realpolitik thinkers of whom HK was won. The book has really interesting chapters on Strauss, Arendt, and Morgenth......more

Incredibly well written. The authors sentences, long and complex, somehow flow seamlessly. Challenges my beliefs about Kissinger. Fascinating construction: not really a biography. More of a history and evolution of realpolitik.......more

To write about Henry Kissinger is to walk into a lion's den of controversy. Throughout his career, Kissinger has been anything but non-controversial. To some, he is a strategic and foreign policy genius who helped broker peace between Israel and Egypt and who reduced the risk of nuclear war. And, al......more