Kissinger's Shadow

The Long Reach of America's Most Controversial Statesman

By: Greg Grandin

Narrated by: Brian O'Neill

Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

A new account of America's most controversial diplomat that moves beyond praise or condemnation to reveal Kissinger as the architect of America's current imperial stance. In his fascinating new book, acclaimed historian Greg Grandin argues that to understand the crisis of contemporary America - its never-ending wars abroad and political polarization at home - we have to understand Henry Kissinger.

Examining Kissinger's own writings as well as a wealth of newly declassified documents, Grandin reveals how Richard Nixon's top foreign policy advisor, even as he was presiding over defeat in Vietnam and a disastrous, secret, and illegal war in Cambodia, was helping to revive a militarized version of American exceptionalism centered on an imperial presidency. Believing that reality could be bent to his will, insisting that intuition is more important in determining policy than hard facts, and vowing that past mistakes should never hinder future bold action, Kissinger anticipated, even enabled the ascendance of the neoconservative idealists who took America into crippling wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Going beyond accounts focusing on either Kissinger's crimes or accomplishments, Grandin offers a compelling new interpretation of the diplomat's continuing influence on how the United States views its role in the world.

Greg Grandin is the author of The Empire of Necessity, Fordlandia (which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award), Empire's Workshop, and The Blood of Guatemala. A professor of history at New York University and a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Public Library, Grandin has served on the UN Truth Commission investigating the Guatemalan Civil War and has written for the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, and The New York Times.

©2015 Greg Grandin (P)2015 Recorded Books

A Rehash of Rehashes...nothing new

The title should be "A Moralist's Criticism of a Realist," which is why Kissinger's tenure was so "controversial." Americans (and the West) always want to impose their moral rectitude on an immoral world even at its own expense and detriment. This is why we fight endless wars as the global policeman as we sink further down into debt. To understand Kissinger one must understand the broader context of the times, not events and issues in isolation as this book does.

You'll never hear a positive or balanced critique of Kissinger from a moralist, although Walter Isaacson's unauthorized biographical tome comes very close.