Kissinger
by Walter Isaacson
Isaacson's 1992 biography of Henry Kissinger: the refugee boy, the Harvard strategist, the realpolitik of Nixon's White House, and the mixture of brilliance and deceit. Long, balanced and the standard one-volume account.
Read it if…
you want a full study of power, intellect and moral compromise in one life.
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Skip it if…
you want admiring or condemning; Isaacson is neither.
Try instead: Good to Great and the Social Sectors →
Three things you will actually use
- Brilliance does not excuse character.
- Secrecy is a tool with a bill.
- Realism needs a conscience attached.
Do this first
Read the chapters on the China opening and note how secrecy served and damaged him.
Our verdict
Balanced one-volume standard.
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Compare with other Leadership books
Good to Great and the Social Sectors
Jim Collins · Leadership
Essential nonprofit monograph.
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Winning the Long Game
Steven Krupp and Paul J. H. Schoemaker · Leadership
Solid, generic primer.
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