Kissinger by Niall Ferguson

Kissinger by Niall Ferguson

The definitive biography of Henry Kissinger, based on unprecedented access to his private papers, by an acclaimed historian at the height of his powers

No 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.

Ferguson, Niall: - 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.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781594206535
ISBN 10	1594206538
Title	Kissinger
Author	Niall Ferguson
Condition	Unavailable
Binding type	Hardback
Publisher	Penguin Putnam Inc
Year published	2015-09-29
Number of pages	1008
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable