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Kissinger: Volume I
- 1923-1968: The Idealist
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 34 hrs and 11 mins
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Publisher's summary
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 US 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.
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A powerful memoir from the late former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. With the same directness that defined his career in public service, Rumsfeld's memoir is filled with previously undisclosed details and insights about the Bush administration, 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also features Rumsfeld's unique and often surprising observations on eight decades of history. Both a fascinating narrative and an unprecedented glimpse into history, Known and Unknown captures the legacy of one of the most influential men in public service.
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Inside view of five decades in politics
- By Brooks on 02-19-11
By: Donald Rumsfeld
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The Best and the Brightest
- By: David Halberstam
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 37 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Using portraits of America’s flawed policy makers and accounts of the forces that drove them, The Best and the Brightest reckons magnificently with the most important abiding question of our country’s recent history: Why did America become mired in Vietnam, and why did we lose? As the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded. It is an American classic.
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Preparation for Ken Burns
- By Chiefkent on 06-12-17
By: David Halberstam
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How Wars End
- Why We Always Fight the Last Battle
- By: Gideon Rose
- Narrated by: Gideon Rose
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1991, the United States Army trounced the Iraqi army in battle only to stumble blindly into postwar turmoil. Then in 2003 the United States did it again. How could this happen? How could the strongest power in modern history fight two wars against the same opponent in just over a decade, win lightning victories both times, and yet still be woefully unprepared for the aftermath? Because Americans always forget the political aspects of war.
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Excellent book
- By Luis on 11-04-10
By: Gideon Rose
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House of War
- The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power
- By: James Carroll
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 26 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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This landmark, myth-shattering work chronicles the most powerful institution in America, the people who created it, and the pathologies it has spawned. Carroll proves a controversial thesis: The Pentagon has, since its founding, operated beyond the control of any force in government or society. It is the biggest, loosest cannon in American history, and no institution has changed this country more.
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A Biased Account
- By GoTravel1385a on 09-06-07
By: James Carroll
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The Wise Men
- Six Friends and the World They Made
- By: Evan Thomas, Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Reese
- Length: 33 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Six close friends shaped the role their country would play in the dangerous years following World War II. They were the original best and brightest, whose towering intellects, outsize personalities, and dramatic actions would bring order to the postwar chaos, and whose strong response to Soviet expansionism would leave a legacy that dominates American policy to this day. In April 1945, they converged to advise an untutored new president, Harry Truman.
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Dull with poor narration
- By KD6161 on 03-31-17
By: Evan Thomas, and others
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The Brothers
- John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: David Cochran Heath
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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John Foster Dulles was secretary of state while his brother, Allen Dulles, was director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In this book, Stephen Kinzer places their extraordinary lives against the backdrop ofAmerican culture and history. He uses the framework of biography to ask: Why does the United States behave as it does in the world?
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A duel biography
- By Jean on 09-26-14
By: Stephen Kinzer
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Kissinger
- A Biography
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 34 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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By the time Henry Kissinger was made secretary of state in 1973, he had become, according to a Gallup poll, the most admired person in America and one of the most unlikely celebrities ever to capture the world’s imagination. Yet Kissinger was also reviled by large segments of the American public, ranging from liberal intellectuals to conservative activists. Kissinger explores the relationship between this complex man's personality and the foreign policy he pursued.
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A dissapointment
- By Mike From Mesa on 12-16-13
By: Walter Isaacson
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De Gaulle
- By: Julian Jackson
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 41 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In a definitive biography of the mythic general who refused to accept Nazi domination of France, Julian Jackson captures this titanic figure as never before. Drawing on unpublished letters, memoirs, and resources of the recently opened de Gaulle archive, he reveals how this volatile visionary put a broken France back at the center of world affairs.
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Extremely British approach to de Gaulle
- By Keith on 05-31-19
By: Julian Jackson
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Not One Inch
- America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate
- By: M.E. Sarotte
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on over a hundred interviews and on secret records of White House-Kremlin contacts, Not One Inch shows how the United States successfully overcame Russian resistance in the 1990s to expand NATO to more than 900 million people. But it also reveals how Washington's hardball tactics transformed the era between the Cold War and the present day, undermining what could have become a lasting partnership.
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America's NATO problem
- By Jeffrey D on 03-24-22
By: M.E. Sarotte
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The Hawk and the Dove
- Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War
- By: Nicholas Thompson
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 15 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Only two Americans held positions of great influence throughout the Cold War; ironically, they were the chief advocates for the opposing strategies for winning---and surviving---that harrowing conflict. Both men came to power during World War II, reached their professional peaks during the Cold War's most frightening moments, and fought epic political battles that spanned decades.
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Two outstanding people in the US Government
- By Nina Donnard on 11-05-09
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A Failed Empire
- The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev
- By: Vladimir Zubok
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 20 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Western interpretations of the Cold War--both realist and neoconservative--have erred by exaggerating either the Kremlin's pragmatism or its aggressiveness, argues Vladislav Zubok. Explaining the interests, aspirations, illusions, fears, and misperceptions of the Kremlin leaders and Soviet elites, Zubok offers a Soviet perspective on the greatest standoff of the 20th century.
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Focus on the Top Leadership
- By Augustus T. White on 08-13-10
By: Vladimir Zubok
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Not Balanced till Conclusion
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Another History of China
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What listeners say about Kissinger: Volume I
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ja
- 06-11-17
A truly great biography
Not only do you get to learn about Kissinger and his life, but you get a genuinely in-depth analysis of the time that he lived in. Even better, you get to learn the philosophy and historiography that Kissinger lived through and wrote about.
Many will disagree with his premise that Kissinger is an idealist, but I think they'll agree his opinions don't feel like simple conjecture.
It was great to listen to.
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-27-18
Excellent narrator, great food for thought
I knew I was taking a gamble when I decided to dive into this 34 hour behemoth... but I'm glad to say that Malcolm Hillgartner's excellent narration helped make this a smooth and enjoyable process. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Niall Ferguson probably has written the best biography on Kissinger out there, showing the episodes of his life that turned him into the man he become.
Highlights for me included:
-Ferguson's take down of the flawed popular conception of Kissinger
-Kissinger as a teenager channeling his future diplomat self as he tries to pry his high school crush from her suitors
-The poem Kissinger writes after liberating a concentration camp
-Watching Kissinger change his view of the world as he learns new lessons from life
-Kissinger's fascinating take on the strategy behind nuclear and limited war
-Ferguson painting an image of how brutal of a year 1968 was for the USA
-All the parts of Kissinger from when he goes to Vietnam and transforms himself into a subject matter expert in East Asian affairs, while previously a Europe specialist
-Ferguson's conclusion was very well done
This is a long listen, but you will learn a lot of history, learn a LOT about Kissinger, and will get some great political philosophy lessons as well. I thought the Harvard year part and Kissinger's childhood was not too exciting, but Ferguson tries to make it interesting. The final chapters of the book wound up being my favorite. Overall, I am very glad I embarked on this book and I encourage others to do the same! I eagerly await part 2.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Michael
- 11-29-22
A wonderful biography
A wonderful stimulating insightful biography of a great man. Well read well written not always agreeable. Learned a great deal about the the decision making process in government a great deal about Kissinger and even more about us as a people. The author is opinionated and I didn't always agree especially on the analysis of Bismarck , Lyndon Johnson's character or Nixon . This is a great biography great enough I'll read and listen to again and treasure as a reference book.
I love it when I learn something new.
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- LHM
- 10-19-15
Paradigm Shift Alert!
Not long ago, I read "On China" by Henry Kissinger. I was stunned. As an amateur student of Chinese history, and avid traveler, especially and frequently to Taiwan (and in a couple of weeks, to mainland China for an extended stay), Dr Kissinger's perspective and exposition on China's worldview were, well, simply stunning. So I immediately bought the new Niall Ferguson biography because: (1) I love Mr Ferguson's work having read and thoroughly enjoyed his work before, and (2) I was VERY intrigued, to say the least, about Dr Kissinger's worldview having seen it first hand in "On China." I was NOT disappointed. Mr Ferguson's writing style and scholarship were a perfect fit for Dr Kissinger's style and scholarship. This book is a real keeper - one I will re-read regularly to recalibrate my understanding of geopolitics. I cannot believe I did not discover Dr Kissinger's work before!! Beware, despite Mr Ferguson's clear prose, Dr Kissinger's work is not for those who don't take time to stop and ponder what they've read. But, for me, it has been worth every moment of reflection, and every revisit so far. Highly recommended. BTW: The narrator's performance was First Class. Clear; consistent; entertaining; and professional.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Johnnie
- 05-12-17
For the history buff
This book gave me a stronger understanding of my parents generation. Now the name's I heard on the evening news during my childhood makes sense. The book was great at providing insider opinions about the Presidents and their cabinet members.
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- Michael
- 11-10-16
Fantastic -more than simply a biography!
An exhaustive account of the first of of the life and times of a transformative statesman. I loved the historical backgrounds of larger geopolitical events offered alongside the more traditional biographical anecdotes describing their effects on Kissinger. Though long, this book was exceptionally well-organized and managed to steadily keep my attention for many straight hours of entertainment. Cannot wait for Volume II!
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- Thomas
- 05-07-17
Better than isaacson and worth the time
This account is less narrative and more philosophical about the bildungsroman of kissinger, with ample historical context and dives deep into themes of realism, legalism, and a generation feeling its way through revolutionary change at the turn of every corner. Too deep for general interest but essential for the historically curious or would-be practitioner of statecraft
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- adam
- 04-11-16
An extraordinary tour de force
A long and rich discussion of the period between the 1920s through the late 1960s. It is so much more than a biography of one of the world's most famous statesman (whether you like him or not he among the most famous statesman of the 20th century). The author delves into history of politics as well as the biography of the man. He clearly admires Dr Kissinger which is a far cry from many of the other less flattering books on the subject.
The performance is masterful.
I look forward to volume 2.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Magnus Brix
- 02-06-16
Perfection!
What made the experience of listening to Kissinger: Volume I the most enjoyable?
Brilliantly insightful and sourced. It's an essential work rendering HK's live accessible and comprehensible as both a human and a genius.
What did you like best about this story?
It's all excellent.
Which character – as performed by Malcolm Hillgartner – was your favorite?
HK
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Many times.
Any additional comments?
This is a treasure for a thinking person.
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- Caroline Brown
- 05-22-16
Balanced assessment excellent performance
Very well read - as we move further from the 60's there are more and more balanced analysis Of the people involved
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