Kissinger: 1923-1968: The Idealist

"Riveting ... this will be his masterpiece"
— Andrew Roberts, The New York Times

"For big, bold and compelling, it is impossible to ignore Kissinger"
— John Bew, New Statesman, Books of the Year

"This is a superb history of the modern world as well as a biography of Kissinger ... a tour de force"
— William Shawcross, The Times

No American statesman has been as revered and as reviled as Henry Kissinger. Hailed by some as the "indispensable man," whose advice has been sought by every president from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush, Kissinger has also attracted immense hostility from critics who have cast him as an amoral Machiavellian—the ultimate cold-blooded "realist."

A Remarkable New Book

In this extraordinary new biography, the first of two volumes, Niall Ferguson has created:

• An extraordinary panorama of Kissinger's world
• A paradigm-shifting reappraisal of the man

Only through knowledge of Kissinger's early life—as a Jew in Hitler's Germany, a poor immigrant in New York, a GI at the Battle of the Bulge, an interrogator of Nazis, and a student of history at Harvard—can we understand his debt to the philosophy of idealism.

Tracing His Rise, Fall, and Revival

This biography explores Kissinger's journey as an adviser to:

• John F. Kennedy
• Nelson Rockefeller
• Richard Nixon

It reveals the magnitude of his contributions to diplomacy, grand strategy, and nuclear deterrence.

A Masterpiece from Niall Ferguson

Drawing not only on Kissinger's hitherto closed private papers but also on documents from more than a hundred archives around the world, this biography is Niall Ferguson's masterpiece.

Like his classic two-volume history of the House of Rothschild, Kissinger sheds dazzling new light on an entire era.