RaveThe Washington PostIn his very fine political biography...Thomas A. Schwartz takes a fairly conventional approach and addresses the expected issues ... But Schwartz also separates his work from most others. He tackles an angle that is often overlooked in the never-receding field of Kissingerology: how domestic political concerns and necessities inform and shape foreign policy discourse and policies. In Schwartz’s apt and original rendering, Kissinger the realist intellectual is in fact a quintessential \'political actor\' ... In adopting this approach and in spite of a narrative that at times is a bit dry and overly dense, Schwartz offers a remarkably intelligent and sensible assessment of Kissinger’s years in government—possibly the best we have to date ... The third [part is] remarkably rich and original ... Schwartz provides a very balanced examination of Kissinger’s intellectual and political trajectory, neither prejudicially critical nor too laudatory ... a critique that is often as indirect as it is ferocious.
Simon Reid-Henry
MixedThe Washington Post... elegantly written and often intelligent, yet remains a fragmentary, incomplete and at times stunningly imprecise book ... Reid-Henry narrates this story with elegance and gusto. He strives to leave no base untouched and jumps confidently from examining western Sydney’s urban transformation to commenting on Verona’s communist social clubs. Unfortunately, this confidence seems often unwarranted, and the book is marred by inexcusable factual mistakes ... The paperback edition that this book deserves will certainly need much more thorough editing and fact-checking ... covers an impressive array of issues and national examples, although it tends sometimes to lump together, often under vague labels such as \'neoliberalism\' or \'monetarism,\' experiences that were much more dissimilar than Reid-Henry would have us believe.
