Leadership

Do individuals matter in shaping the course of events? Henry Kissinger thinks they do, and in his latest book he draws on case studies and his own experience to argue that the individual leader, and his or her statecraft, can sometimes determine history ... Although Kissinger, now aged 99, has not held office since 1977, he has advised virtually every US president since Nixon... For Kissinger, good leaders have a deep appreciation of the past and an ability to imagine possible futures ... Elder statesman is an overused term but Kissinger is the genuine article, and worth listening to.

Margaret MacMillan, Financial Times

As he heads towards his century, Kissinger has lost none of the intellectual firepower that set him apart from other foreign policy professors and practitioners of his and subsequent generations.

Niall Ferguson, Sunday Times

Yoda for foreign policy geeks

Andrew Anthony, Observer

The 99-year-old Kissinger has written what purports to be a handbook for the leaders of today and tomorrow, built around six portraits of global figures from the second half of the 20th century: Konrad Adenauer, Charles de Gaulle, Nixon, Anwar Sadat, Lee Kuan Yew and Margaret Thatcher. Kissinger draws interesting parallels between them. All six lives were shaped by what he calls the Second Thirty Years War - the period of global conflict from 1914 to 1945. ... Kissinger knew them all and enlivens his text with accounts of his own interactions with the leaders and those around them. ... informed and authoritative

Jeremy Cliffe, New Statesman

They all triumphed over their modest starts in life, through their great ability and drive, to reach the pinnacle of power. All of his six subjects, Kissinger argues, show that "transformative leadership" by great people matters more than impersonal forces in shaping history.

Phillips O’Brien, The Times

authoritative... given the pitiful state of leadership in the western world today, a few of those already in high office would lose nothing except, perhaps, their idiocy by reading it.

Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph

There is no denying his intellectual potency ... this tome is a robust study of six leaders who he asserts 'transcended the circumstances they inherited'. ... he makes shrewd comments about the way in which leaders operate today in an era dominated by social media and identity-based factionalism.

Piers Brendon, Literary Review

One of America's most legendary diplomats finds the soul in statecraft in these enlightening sketches of world leaders. . . . Kissinger infuses his lucid policy analyses with colorful firsthand observations. . . . Kissinger's portraits of politicians spinning weakness and defeat into renewed strength are captivating. This is a vital study of power in action.

Publishers Weekly

Now aged 99, Henry Kissinger is still writing books. Here he profiles six leaders he has known - Lee Kuan Yew, Konrad Adenauer, Richard Nixon, Charles de Gaulle, Margaret Thatcher and Anwar Sadat - and draws general lessons about the character and intellect of leaders who are able to change the world.

Gideon Rachman, Financial Times Book of the Year