9781324004059-1324004053-The Inevitability of Tragedy: Henry Kissinger and His World

The Inevitability of Tragedy: Henry Kissinger and His World

ISBN-13: 9781324004059
ISBN-10: 1324004053
Edition: Illustrated
Author: Barry Gewen
Publication date: 2020
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Format: Hardcover 480 pages
FREE US shipping on ALL non-marketplace orders
Marketplace
from $8.10 USD
Buy

From $8.10

Book details

ISBN-13: 9781324004059
ISBN-10: 1324004053
Edition: Illustrated
Author: Barry Gewen
Publication date: 2020
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Format: Hardcover 480 pages

Summary

The Inevitability of Tragedy: Henry Kissinger and His World (ISBN-13: 9781324004059 and ISBN-10: 1324004053), written by authors Barry Gewen, was published by W. W. Norton & Company in 2020. With an overall rating of 4.3 stars, it's a notable title among other United States (Historical) books. You can easily purchase or rent The Inevitability of Tragedy: Henry Kissinger and His World (Hardcover) from BooksRun, along with many other new and used United States books and textbooks. And, if you're looking to sell your copy, our current buyback offer is $0.56.

Description

A new portrait of Henry Kissinger focusing on the fundamental ideas underlying his policies: Realism, balance of power, and national interest.

Few public officials have provoked such intense controversy as Henry Kissinger. During his time in the Nixon and Ford administrations, he came to be admired and hated in equal measure. Notoriously, he believed that foreign affairs ought to be based primarily on the power relationships of a situation, not simply on ethics. He went so far as to argue that under certain circumstances America had to protect its national interests even if that meant repressing other countries’ attempts at democracy. For this reason, many today on both the right and left dismiss him as a latter-day Machiavelli, ignoring the breadth and complexity of his thought.

With The Inevitability of Tragedy, Barry Gewen corrects this shallow view, presenting the fascinating story of Kissinger’s development as both a strategist and an intellectual and examining his unique role in government through his ideas. It analyzes his contentious policies in Vietnam and Chile, guided by a fresh understanding of his definition of Realism, the belief that world politics is based on an inevitable, tragic competition for power.

Crucially, Gewen places Kissinger’s pessimistic thought in a European context. He considers how Kissinger was deeply impacted by his experience as a refugee from Nazi Germany, and explores the links between his notions of power and those of his mentor, Hans Morgenthau―the father of Realism―as well as those of two other German-Jewish émigrés who shared his concerns about the weaknesses of democracy: Leo Strauss and Hannah Arendt.

The Inevitability of Tragedy offers a thoughtful perspective on the origins of Kissinger’s sober worldview and argues that a reconsideration of his career is essential at a time when American foreign policy lacks direction.

8 pages of illustrations
Rate this book Rate this book

We would LOVE it if you could help us and other readers by reviewing the book