The wise men
A captivating blend of personal biography and public drama, The Wise Men introduces six close friends who 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 leave a legacy that dominates American policy to this day: Averell Harriman, the freewheeling diplomat and Roosevelt’s special envoy to Churchill and Stalin; Dean Acheson, the secretary of state who was more responsible for the Truman Doctrine than Truman and for the Marshall Plan than General Marshall; George Kennan, self-cast outsider and intellectual darling of the Washington elite; Robert Lovett, assistant secretary of war, undersecretary of state, and secretary of defense throughout the formative years of the Cold War; John McCloy, one of the nation’s most influential private citizens; and Charles Bohlen, adroit diplomat and ambassador to the Soviet Union.
Stats for nerds
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What Hacker News says
- Agreed. That said, to give some credit, here are a few I’ve read during the last few years that I can offer as counter examples:
* All the shah’s men, by Stephen Kinzer, about how the 1953 coup against the democratically elected prime minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh was orchestrated.
* The Idea Factory, by John Gertnee, about the history of Bell Labs
* A mind at play, by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman, about Claude Shannon
* Ike’s bluff, by Evan Thomas, about Dwight Eisenhower
* The Wise Men, by Walter Isacsson and Evan Thomas, about diplomats during the Truman administration
I tend to be more skeptical about books written by journalists that relate to some specific topic rather than historical narrative. Additionally, I tend to read the historical narratives with more skepticism than I do when I read history books written by professional historians.
- It should be noted that later in life Keenan was distraught by the extreme anti-communist hysteria and need for containment that was inspired by his telegram and general foreign policy views [0]. It seems that postwar US was much more cordial and trusting of the Soviet Union but quickly swung to other side as it became clear that Stalin was interested only in grabbing as much land as possible to form a sizeable buffer between Russia and western Europe. Which seems reasonable: German forces had reached the outskirts of Moscow and an unbelievable number of Russians died in the war.
I highly highly recommend the Wise Men [1].
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_F._Kennan#Academic_care... [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Wise-Men-Friends-World-They/dp/147672...
- I read Isaacson's long-ago book The Wise Men (written with a coauthor) and found it masterful, engaging, and comprehensive.
One of Siracusa's main objections to the Jobs bio is that Isaacson does not understand technology enough to separate the important from the trivial.
Isaacson has faced this kind of problem begore. It seems from this review that he had advice from Brian Greene on his Einstein bio:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/books/09masl.html
I wonder if Isaacson did not have enough help with the tech on the Jobs book?
