Icarus Syndrome, The : A History of American Hubris - Peter Beinart

Icarus Syndrome, The

A History of American Hubris

By: Peter Beinart

Paperback | 21 February 2019

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"Peter Beinart has written a vivid, empathetic, and convincing history of the men and ideas that have shaped the ambitions of American foreign policy during the last century--a story in which human fallibility and idealism flow together. The story continues, of course, and so his book is not only timely; it is indispensable." -- Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars

Peter Beinart's provocative account of hubris in the American century describes Washington on the eve of three wars: World War I, Vietnam, and Iraq--three moments when American leaders decided they could remake the world in their image. Each time, leading intellectuals declared that the spread of democracy was inevitable. Each time, a president held the nation in the palm of his hand. And each time, a war conceived in arrogance brought tragedy.

But each catastrophe also imparted wisdom to a new generation of thinkers. These leaders learned to reconcile the American belief that anything is possible with the realities of a world that will never fully conform to this country's will--and in their struggles lie the seeds of American renewal today.

Industry Reviews
"The Icarus Syndrome does what works of history and journalism do at their very best: use the past to illuminate, in often stark and surprising ways, the challenges of the present. This is an important book."--Jon Meacham, author of American Lion
"The Icarus Syndrome is a confident and contentious history of more than a century of American foreign policy and its recurring tragic flaws."--Sean Wilentz, author of The Age of Reagan
"The Icarus Syndrome is a readable survey of 'America in the world' over the past hundred years. Nothing is more chilling than Beinart's catalog of the continuous, wrong-headed invocation of 'Munich' and 'appeasement.'"--Geoffrey Wheatcroft, The New York Review of Books
"A brilliant new book about the pendulum swings of U.S. foreign policy between excessive ambition and excessive retrenchment."--The Los Angeles Times
"A highly readable and useful hundred-year account of American ventures abroad that can serve as a path to understanding the past failures and uncovering why policy renewal is now proving so elusive. . . . Beinart usefully grapples with the practical impediments to making good policy."--Leslie H. Gelb, The New York Times Book Review
"A rollicking history. . . . Beinart is a wonderful storyteller. There's not much that he leaves out of The Icarus Syndrome. (It's exactly the book I wish I'd had when I was teaching American foreign policy.)"--Newsweek
"Beinart is at his most illuminating when he lingers on forgotten episodes that reveal how difficult it is to understand the implications of any event at any given moment--the extent to which everyone is a prisoner of past failure or past success."--George Packer, The New Yorker
"Beinart possesses the analytical skills of a seasoned historian. . . . He's a smart, reasoned political analyst who doesn't resort to hyperbole and hysteria when making a point. . . The result is a book that's generally enlightening."--The San Francisco Chronicle
"Beinart's The Icarus Syndrome is very much a book with a message: a cautionary message to avoid hubris and to recognize the messy reality of world politics."--Paul Kennedy, author of The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
"Energetically researched and entertainingly written, Peter Beinart's The Icarus Syndrome is both a fascinating intellectual history and an important coming-of-age parable about his generation's hard-learned lesson in the limits of American power."--Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side
"Impressive. . . . Mr Beinart has produced an original and ambitious study."--The Economist
"Informative and engaging. . . . Beinart's book tackles a great deal of material in an approachable, yet never simplistic, way. . . . The Icarus Syndrome is a valuable addition to the public debate about the United States's ever evolving role in the world."--The Boston Globe
"Peter Beinart has written a vivid, empathetic, and convincing history of the men and ideas that have shaped the ambitions of American foreign policy during the last century--a story in which human fallibility and idealism flow together. Beinart's book is not only timely; it is indispensible."--Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars
"Powerful. . . . An insightful and enjoyable account of the ideas and individuals that have animated America's global ambitions over the past century. . . . Required reading."--The Washington Post
"Why do we succomb to hubris? Peter Beinart has written a highly intelligent and wonderfully readable book that answers the question by looking at a century of American foreign policy. As with everything Beinart writes, it is lucid, thoughtful and strikingly honest."--Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post-American World
"With this book Beinart vindicates his standing as one of the major thinkers of his generation on the United States' world role."--Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs

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