1923-1968: The Idealist
1923-1968: The Idealist
(Sprache: Englisch)
From the bestselling author of The Ascent of Money and The Square and the Tower, the definitive biography of Henry Kissinger, based on unprecedented access to his private papers.
Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award
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Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award
No...
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From the bestselling author of The Ascent of Money and The Square and the Tower, the definitive biography of Henry Kissinger, based on unprecedented access to his private papers.Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award
No American statesman has been as revered or 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 two-volume biography, drawing not only on Kissinger's hitherto closed private papers but also on documents from more than a hundred archives around the world, the idea of Kissinger as the ruthless arch-realist is based on a profound misunderstanding.
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 one of the most important strategic thinkers America has
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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.
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PrefaceIndeed I cannot conceive a more perfect mode of writing any man s life, than not only relating all the most important events of it in their order, but interweaving what he privately wrote, and said, and thought; by which mankind are enabled as it were to see him live, and to live o er each scene with him, as he actually advanced through the several stages of his life. . . . I will venture to say that he will be seen in this work more completely than any man who has ever yet lived. And he will be seen as he really was; for I profess to write, not his panegyrick, which must be all praise, but his Life. . . . [I]n every picture there should be shade as well as light.
BOSWELL, Life of Johnson1
The task of the biographer, as James Boswell understood, is to enable the reader to see, in her mind s eye, his subject live. To achieve this, the biographer must know his subject. That means reading all that he wrote as well as much that was written about him. It also means, if the subject is living, not merely interviewing him but getting to know him, as Boswell got to know Johnson: conversing with him, supping with him, even traveling with him. The challenge is, of course, to do so without falling so much under the subject s influence that the reader ceases to believe the disclaimer that the work is a life, not a panegyric. Boswell, who grew to love Johnson, achieved this feat in two ways: by making explicit Johnson s boorish manners and slovenly appearance, but also (as Jorge Luis Borges noted) by making himself a figure of fun a straight man to Johnson s wit, an overexcitable Scot to Johnson s dry Englishman.2 My approach has been different.
In addition to the help of all those thanked in the acknowledgments, this author has had one noteworthy advantage over his predecessors: I have had access to Henry Kissinger s private papers, not only the papers from his time in government, housed at the Library of
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Congress, but also the private papers donated to Yale University in 2011, which include more than a hundred boxes of personal writings, letters, and diaries dating back to the 1940s. I have also been able to interview the subject of the work on multiple occasions and at considerable length. Not only has this book been written with Henry Kissinger s cooperation; it was written at his suggestion.
For this reason, I can predict with certainty that hostile reviewers will allege that I have in some way been influenced or induced to paint a falsely flattering picture. This is not the case. Although I was granted access to the Kissinger papers and was given some assistance with the arrangement of interviews with family members and former colleagues, my sole commitment was to make my best efforts to record [his] life as it actually was on the basis of an informed study of the documentary and other evidence available. This commitment was part of a legal agreement between us, drawn up in 2004, which ended with the following clause:
While the authority of the Work will be enhanced by the extent of the Grantor s [i.e., Kissinger s] assistance . . . it will be enhanced still more by the fact of the Author s independence; thus, it is understood and agreed that . . . the Author shall have full editorial control over the final manuscript of the Work, and the Grantor shall have no right to vet, edit, amend or prevent the publication of the finished manuscript of the Work.
The sole exception was that, at Dr. Kissinger s request, I would not use quotations from his private papers that contained sensitive personal information. I am glad to say that he exercised this right on only a handful of occasions and always in connection with purely personal and indeed intimate familial matters.
This bo
For this reason, I can predict with certainty that hostile reviewers will allege that I have in some way been influenced or induced to paint a falsely flattering picture. This is not the case. Although I was granted access to the Kissinger papers and was given some assistance with the arrangement of interviews with family members and former colleagues, my sole commitment was to make my best efforts to record [his] life as it actually was on the basis of an informed study of the documentary and other evidence available. This commitment was part of a legal agreement between us, drawn up in 2004, which ended with the following clause:
While the authority of the Work will be enhanced by the extent of the Grantor s [i.e., Kissinger s] assistance . . . it will be enhanced still more by the fact of the Author s independence; thus, it is understood and agreed that . . . the Author shall have full editorial control over the final manuscript of the Work, and the Grantor shall have no right to vet, edit, amend or prevent the publication of the finished manuscript of the Work.
The sole exception was that, at Dr. Kissinger s request, I would not use quotations from his private papers that contained sensitive personal information. I am glad to say that he exercised this right on only a handful of occasions and always in connection with purely personal and indeed intimate familial matters.
This bo
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Autoren-Porträt von Niall Ferguson
Niall Ferguson is one of the world's most renowned historians. He is the author of Paper and Iron, The House of Rothschild, The Pity of War, The Cash Nexus, Empire, Colossus, The War of the World, The Ascent of Money, High Financier, Civilization, The Great Degeneration, Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist, and The Square and the Tower. He is Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing. His many awards include the Benjamin Franklin Prize for Public Service (2010), the Hayek Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2012) and the Ludwig Erhard Prize for Economic Journalism (2013).
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Niall Ferguson
- 2016, 1008 Seiten, 2 Schwarz-Weiß-Abbildungen, Maße: 14,1 x 21,7 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: PENGUIN BOOKS
- ISBN-10: 0143109758
- ISBN-13: 9780143109754
- Erscheinungsdatum: 13.09.2016
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
Magisterial .Like Mr. Kissinger or loathe him, this is a work of engrossing scholarship. The EconomistMr. Ferguson offers a remarkably rich discussion of Mr. Kissinger s strategic thought and of how it took shape over time The book is well worth reading as a corrective to harsher historical judgments of Mr. Kissinger. Wall Street Journal
If Kissinger s official biographer cannot be accused of falling for his subject s justifiably famed charm, he certainly gives the reader enough evidence to conclude that Henry Kissinger is one of the greatest Americans in the history of the Republic, someone who has been repulsively traduced over several decades and who deserved to have defense of this comprehensiveness published years ago .Niall Ferguson already has many important, scholarly and controversial books to his credit. But if the second volume of Kissinger is anywhere near as comprehensive, well written and riveting as the first, this will be his masterpiece. Andrew Roberts, The New York Times Book Review
Combine careful and extensive scholarship, clear writing, and a magnificent subject and you get Niall Ferguson on Kissinger, a genuinely educational read. -George P. Schultz, 60th U.S. Secretary of State
When an accomplished historian writes about one of the world s great diplomats, the results are sure to be a masterpiece -- and that is exactly how to describe Niall Ferguson s epic on Henry Kissinger. -James A. Baker, III, 61st U.S. Secretary of State
This is a terrific biography, and a must read for understanding the evolution of one of the most important and compelling architects of American foreign policy of our age. -Condoleezza Rice, Former Secretary of State and Denning Professor in Global Business and the Economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business
With all that s been written about Kissinger over so many years, you might think that there d be little new to say. Think
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again. Niall Ferguson's Kissinger: The Idealist shifts the trajectory of Kissinger studies fundamentally. Always thorough, often surprising, at times deeply moving, this is an extraordinary biography of the most significant scholar-statesman-strategist of our time, by one of our most accomplished historians. Not to be missed. -John Lewis Gaddis, Yale University
Ferguson s biography will be a classic. This is a story of an influential, complex, and shrewd historical figure set in the context of the drama of America and the world in the mid-20th Century. Ferguson s research is fresh and revealing, his writing is pleasure to read, and his insights are sharp and thought-provoking. -Robert B. Zoellick, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Former President of the World Bank, and U.S. Trade Representative
"Fresh and imaginative, this carefully researched biography reads like a novel. Under Niall Ferguson s skilled pen, Kissinger the public colossus becomes Henry the boy and man. A wonderful read! -Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and author of Is the American Century Over?
Ferguson s biography will be a classic. This is a story of an influential, complex, and shrewd historical figure set in the context of the drama of America and the world in the mid-20th Century. Ferguson s research is fresh and revealing, his writing is pleasure to read, and his insights are sharp and thought-provoking. -Robert B. Zoellick, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Former President of the World Bank, and U.S. Trade Representative
"Fresh and imaginative, this carefully researched biography reads like a novel. Under Niall Ferguson s skilled pen, Kissinger the public colossus becomes Henry the boy and man. A wonderful read! -Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and author of Is the American Century Over?
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