Tim Weiner has won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his reporting and writing on national security and intelligence. He covered the CIA, the war in Afghanistan, and crises and conflicts in fourteen nations for The New York Times. Weiner has taught history and writing at Princeton and Columbia. The Folly and the Glory is his sixth book.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2020 "The Folly and the
Glory is a riveting spy thriller made all the more chilling because
thanks to Tim Weiner's meticulous reporting, it is all true. Anyone
trying to understand the current tensions between the U.S. and
Russia over election interference and much else needs to read this
fascinating history." --Jane Mayer, author of Dark Money: The
Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical
Right "A well-written and provocative journey to this era's
perilous fight...And Weiner is especially adept at unearthing and
explaining the covert side of it all....as a summation, The Folly
and the Glory is brilliant." --The Washington Post "Fascinating,
disturbing, important." --Francine Prose "A sweeping, lively survey
of the worldwide competition between the Soviet Union (and later,
Russia) and the United States since the end of World War II. Weiner
has, in abundance, the knowledge and experience required to write
such a book... [he] skillfully shows that subversion, the
dissemination of disinformation and military interventions were
standard fare in the competition between Moscow and Washington, and
he enlivens his story with vivid portraits of the main
characters...informative and entertaining." --The New York Times
Book Review "[A] colorful and richly detailed account...Weiner
briskly relates a treasure trove of declassified material from the
Cold War and draws on insider accounts to present a plausible
portrait of the current state of affairs. Newshounds and espionage
fans will be enthralled." --Publishers Weekly "In this fraught,
globally consequential 2020 campaign season, one could hardly ask
for a better explanation of how we landed here." --Booklist,
*starred review* "[Weiner] expertly profiles our history of
political warfare against the Soviet Union during the Cold
War...the pages turn quickly...[a] fascinating read, not only from
its historical perspective, but also in how it reminds us that
conflict with our adversaries and enemies begins long before the
first shot is fired." --The Cipher Brief "In his beautifully
written book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tim Weiner...traces the
history of Russian political warfare...Wiener details how these
[active] measures have been used since WWII up through today's
Internet-savvy operation of Vladimir Putin. Underlying this
mega-effort is a basic tenet: that things are not what they are,
but rather what you can make them seem to be...Weiner gives equal
attention to US political warfare...as Weiner notes, elections
alone do not a democracy make." --Kathleen C. Bailey, Comparative
Strategy "The Folly and the Glory is a wake-up call to the nation
about the threat from Russia. This book details the
seventy-five-year battle between the United States and Russia--the
success and the failures. As a former Director of the CIA and
Secretary of Defense, I can attest to the reality of the political
warfare. The most sobering conclusion is that we may be in danger
of losing that war." --Leon E. Panetta, chairman of the Panetta
Institute for Public Policy and former Secretary of Defense
"Gripping...unnervingly insightful." --Kirkus Reviews, *starred
review* "How has Russia gained the upper hand in the decades-long
political warfare between our two countries? The Folly and the
Glory deals with that terrifying question, perhaps the most
important national security issue facing the United States. Tim
Weiner has unique insights about this struggle, achieved through
thirty-five years of reporting and writing." --the Honorable
William Perry, former Secretary of Defense
"Weiner makes a riveting if bleak argument that the United States
mishandled the collapse of Soviet-style communism, and now we're
reaping the consequences." --HistoryNet
"In its shadowy, often shocking, political warfare against the
Soviet Union, America was often one step behind. Now it is losing
ground to Russia. American democracy is teetering on the precipice
-- and The Folly and the Glory is critical to understanding how
Putin and his political warriors have brought us to the brink."
--Asha Rangappa, Yale University's Jackson Institute for Public
Affairs and former FBI special agent "With wit, wisdom, and
passion, Tim Weiner, a brilliant investigative historian,
chronicles the wild and unsettling tale of the covert political
warfare that has transpired between the United States and Russia
during and after the Cold War--a clandestine clash that Moscow
ultimately won with its successful attack on the 2016 election. The
Folly and the Glory is a gripping and alarming page-turner
revealing harrowing stories of skulduggery, subterfuge, and
malice--and a clear and compelling warning that American democracy
is threatened by enemies abroad and their witting and unwitting
allies at home."
--David Corn, co-author of Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of
Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump "Tim
Weiner, our most intrepid historian of national security's dark
secrets, pulls off another triumph with The Folly and the Glory, a
fast-paced and revelatory chronicle showing that the Kremlin's
campaign to subvert American democracy is but the latest chapter in
a struggle that began with the Cold War--and the blowback to the
type of 'political warfare' that the U.S. invented." --Fred Kaplan,
author of The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of
Nuclear War and Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War
"There is no bigger or more consequential modern history than this.
Writing with his inimitable fierce, forceful urgency, Tim Weiner
traces the eye-opening and astounding story of 75 years of shadow
conflict between the US and Russia, from murder plots in the
jungles of Congo to jazz in Poland to the Democratic Party's
servers in 2016. This book will stand alongside works like Evan
Thomas and Walter Issacson's The Wise Men and Robert Gates' From
The Shadows as the essential histories of the Cold War, a war that
as Weiner outlines, never really ended in Russia's eyes." --Garrett
M. Graff, author of the New York Times bestseller The Only Plane in
the Sky
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