The wise men
by Walter Isaacson, Evan Thomas · first published 1986
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2011–2019first – last mentioned
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A captivating blend of personal biography and public drama, The Wise Men introduces six close friends who shaped the role their country would play in the dangerous years following World War II. They were the original best and brightest, whose towering intellects, outsize personalities, and dramatic actions would bring order to the postwar chaos and leave a legacy that dominates American policy to this day: Averell Harriman, the freewheeling diplomat and Roosevelt’s special envoy to Churchill and Stalin; Dean Acheson, the secretary of state who was more responsible for the Truman Doctrine than
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…buffer between Russia and western Europe. Which seems reasonable: German forces had reached the outskirts of Moscow and an unbelievable number of Russians died in the war. I highly highly recommend the Wise Men [1]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_F._Kennan#Academic_care... [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Wise-Men-Friends-World-They/dp/147672...
on “George Kennan's “Long Telegram” (1946)” ↗…The Idea Factory, by John Gertnee, about the history of Bell Labs * A mind at play, by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman, about Claude Shannon * Ike’s bluff, by Evan Thomas, about Dwight Eisenhower * The Wise Men, by Walter Isacsson and Evan Thomas, about diplomats during the Truman administration I tend to be more skeptical about books written by journalists that relate to some specific topic rather than historical…
on “Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books” ↗I read Isaacson's long-ago book The Wise Men (written with a coauthor) and found it masterful, engaging, and comprehensive. One of Siracusa's main objections to the Jobs bio is that Isaacson does not understand technology enough to separate the…
on “Getting Steve Jobs Wrong” ↗