Thursday, January 05, 2006
Book notes
on America in Iraq, The Assassin's Gate. It is an excellent and important book, even though the New York Times chose it as one of the five best non-fiction books of the year. A full review will be forthcoming at some point in the next week or so, but suffice it to say that Packer's effort meets the critical test of all good books on foreign policy: it is bound to anger the ideologues on both sides. It is also engrossing. You will Now, for the really good news: John Lewis Gaddis, Yale's most important contribution to American diplomatic history, has written a new concise history
of the Cold War (The Cold War: A New History). Gaddis is an extremely lucid and illuminating historian, and he approaches diplomatic history from a perspective that will appeal to most readers of this blog. His short and elegant Surprise, Security and the American Experience, which I read about a year ago, ties the foreign policy of George W. Bush all the way back to the grand strategy of John Quincy Adams. I expect that his new book on the Cold War will be the most accessible history of that struggle, which so many Americans have already all but forgotten, for years to come.6 Comments:
By 
Cassandra, at
Thu Jan 05, 07:00:00 PM:
Oooh! You're my hero!
You know I'm a Gaddis fan, TH.
By TigerHawk, at
Thu Jan 05, 07:01:00 PM:
Indeed I do. In fact, the second paragraph of this post was really just blatant sucking up.
By Cassandra, at
Thu Jan 05, 09:47:00 PM:
By Cassandra, at
Thu Jan 05, 09:49:00 PM:
I guess this was a *dead* giveaway:
Now, for the really good news: John Lewis Gaddis, Yale's most important contribution to American diplomatic history...
You'll have to forgive me: two days of heavy-duty editing has me a bit slow on the uptake. Punk.
By 
, at
Fri Jan 06, 03:10:00 PM:
Hearing somewhre that "Assassin's Gate" would be excellent, I asked my wife to get me this book for Xmas, and she didn't disappoint. (She also gave me VDH's book on the Peloponnesian War. Which to read first??)
I am going to start Packer's book this weekend, but was suddenly thinking I would be taken on a liberal's axe-grinding ride through the Iraq War. With your recommendation, I am now looking forward to the book.
By TigerHawk, at
Fri Jan 06, 03:29:00 PM:
There is a lot of liberal axe-grinding, but he poses sharp challenges to the anti-war movement.
