ISAACSON, Walter. [Henry A. Kissinger].
Kissinger: A Biography.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
$850.00
In Stock
Item Number: RRB-152948
+$500
First edition of Walter Isaacson's Kissinger: A Biography; Signed by Kissinger
First edition of Isaacson's authoritative biography of Henry Kissinger. Octavo, original half cloth, illustrated. Boldly signed by Henry Kissinger on the front free endpaper. Isaacson conducted extensive personal interviews with Kissinger alongside 150 other sources, and was granted access to Kissinger's private papers, personal letters, recorded telephone conversations, desk diaries, memos of classified meetings, and transcripts of FBI wiretaps. The New York Times called it a brilliant and disturbing study of power. The relationship between biographer and subject was not without significant tension. Kissinger initially cooperated with Isaacson and granted him considerable access, a decision he reportedly came to regret. The New York Times historian Theodore Draper observed pointedly that cooperating with Isaacson may come to seem one of his greatest miscalculations. Isaacson's central conclusion was unflinching: that Kissinger's power-oriented realism faltered because it was too dismissive of the role of morality, with the secret bombing of Cambodia, the Christmas bombing of Hanoi, and the destabilization of Chile representing a callous disregard for the democratic and humanitarian values that are a basic source of America's world influence. Kissinger refused to speak with Isaacson for several years after publication, a silence that spoke to the biographical candor that distinguished the book from more deferential treatments of living subjects. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Lawrence Ratzkin. Author photograph by Ted Thai.
Henry Alfred Kissinger (1923-2023) was one of the most consequential and polarizing figures in the history of American foreign policy, serving as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State under Presidents Nixon and Ford and shaping the geopolitical landscape of the Cold War through his doctrine of realpolitik. Born Heinz Alfred Kissinger in Fürth, Bavaria, he fled Nazi Germany with his family at the age of fifteen, settling in New York and eventually rising to the pinnacle of American power. By 1973, the Gallup Poll had identified him as the most admired person in America. The first full biography of Kissinger, this book explores the relationship between his complex personality - brilliant, conspiratorial, furtive, prone to power struggles, charming yet at times deceitful - and the foreign policy he pursued. It draws on extensive interviews with Kissinger as well as hundreds of other sources including Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, H. R. Haldeman, Russian diplomats, cabinet colleagues, childhood friends, and business clients. The result is an intimate narrative, filled with surprising revelations, that take's the century's most colorful statesman from his childhood to his twilight years.
Kissinger: A Biography.
$850.00
In Stock