Description

By (author) Luce Edward

Short /annotation:
An intimate and perceptive biography of Zbigniew Brzezinski – one of America’s greatest and most influential geopolitical thinkers.

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”For anyone who wants to understand the history of America and the world, this is a useful and important book” ANNE APPLEBAUM

”A biographer of genius … One of the sharpest political pens of our day” WILLIAM DALRYMPLE

”A towering achievement. A book which is founded on deep scholarship, yet so accessible and readable from the very beginning that it feels more like a historical detective story” RAGEH OMAAR

Zbigniew Brzezinski was a political strategist who rose to prominence as an intellectual architect of US foreign policy during the Cold War. As National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter and a trusted advisor to US presidents from John F. Kennedy onwards, Brzezinski’s expertise helped shape global strategy at critical moments – most significantly as a key figure in the downfall of the Soviet Union.

A Polish émigré who witnessed the devastation of his homeland during both Nazi and Soviet occupations, Brzezinski became one of the West’s foremost scholars of totalitarianism. His nuanced understanding of the importance of ‘speaking the enemy’s language’, coupled with his close friendship with Pope John Paul II was instrumental in preventing a Soviet invasion of Poland. While Nixon and Kissinger, his lifelong rival, famously opened China to the West in the early 1970s, it was Brzezinski and Carter who strengthened US-China relations, further shifting the global balance of power away from Moscow. Beyond the Cold War, Brzezinski continued to influence foreign policy, notably in shaping the nation’s response to the 9/11 attacks. Yet his legacy remains underreported, leaving gaps in our understanding of Cold War history and its aftermath.

Edward Luce, celebrated columnist and political writer, restores Brzezinski’s rightful place in history. Through a sweeping narrative that spans much of the 20th century, Zbig offers a gripping account of Brzezinski’s life and, in doing so, narrates a compelling re-examination of the end of the Cold War.

Review quote:
Zbig is a
magnificent and highly readable chronicle of the life and times of one of the most important American strategists of the 20th century, written with an appreciative eye for both the man and the politics of the time he helped to shape

Review quote:
This is
the best book ever written about a national security advisor. It’s also by far the best biography on Brzezinski – a towering figure in American foreign policy

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With Zbig, Edward Luce,
one of the sharpest political pens of our day, has shown himself to be, in addition,
a biographer of genius

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One of the great US strategists of the Cold War and its aftermath. He … proved prescient in his fear that the US and Europe would squander the opportunity presented by the fall of communism to build a new world order.
In Vladimir Putin, he recognised the West’s Nemesis earlier than almost anyone else. Ed Luce’s
meticulous and engaging biography is beautifully balanced. He leaves you in no doubt how desperately we lack the new generation of geopolitical strategic thinkers who can boast Zbig’s acuity and prescience

Review quote:
A brilliant architect of the American Century, Zbigniew Brzezinski deserves
a brilliant biography, and Ed Luce has given us just that: a
sensitive, deeply researched
and fair-minded portrait of a man who had a remarkable journey and has left America, and the world, the most significant of legacies

Review quote:
Ed Luce”s Zbig is not only the
definitive biography of Zbigniew Brzezins