Kissinger: Volume I: 1923-1968: The Idealist
Written by Niall Ferguson
Narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner and Jeff Cummings
4/5
()
About this audiobook
The definitive biography of Henry Kissinger, based on unprecedented access to his private papers
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.
Niall Ferguson
Niall Ferguson is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard and a Senior Research Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Great Degeneration, Civilization, The Ascent of Money, and The War of the World.
Related to Kissinger
Related audiobooks
The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kissinger's Shadow: The Long Reach of America's Most Controversial Statesman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Passage of Power Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Brilliant Disaster: JFK, Castro, and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Making of the President 1960 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5High Financier: The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Civilization: The West and the Rest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Diplomacy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters and Commanders: How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941-1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stalin, Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Money Men: Capitalism, Democracy, and the Hundred Years' War over the American Dollar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5White House Warriors: How the National Security Council Transformed the American Way of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cold War: A New History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eisenhower: A Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eisenhower in War and Peace Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great Society: A New History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Political Biographies For You
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Adams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward's Twenty Interviews with President Donald Trump Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Assassination Vacation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Romney: A Reckoning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The White House Plumbers: The Seven Weeks That Led to Watergate and Doomed Nixon's Presidency Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dressed for a Dance in the Snow: Women's Voices from the Gulag Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Watergate Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fear: Trump in the White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Peril Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mornings on Horseback Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5V Is For Victory Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Team of Rivals Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Truman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Kissinger
15 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stellar and really nice way to see the world through the eyes of a young boy to a man in the most political way
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This was a very thorough dive into Mr. K’s early life and development, but seems to be written for insiders. Way too many mentions of people those on the outside would have no way of identifying (without even brief introductions).