Overview

'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.

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9781526637840

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Reviews

Ed Luce's Zbig is not only the definitive biography of Zbigniew Brzezinski, a crucial figure in the history of the Cold War, but also a book with real insights into the nature of power - especially the ways in which intellectual valour and good faith can come into conflict with the ugly realities of the world. For anyone who wants to understand the history of America and the world, this is a useful and important book -- Anne Applebaum, author of AUTOCRACY, INC 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 -- Francis Fukuyama, author of LIBERALISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS 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 -- Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Zbig is a brilliant study of an American statesman, a compelling biography of both a man and a moment, the beginning of the end of the Cold War. What Kissinger, his friend and rival, was to Republicans in the 1970s, Brzezinski was to the Democrats – a formidable intellect and advocate who saw the Soviet threat more clearly than most in the upper echelons of power in Washington. This is history that matters more than ever today, given the resurgent threat from Russia, powerfully rendered by the great Ed Luce -- Susan Glasser, co-author of THE MAN OF RAN WASHINGTON and THE DIVIDER 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 -- David Rubenstein, author of THE HIGHEST CALLING Zbig is an astonishing biography that will change the way history looks at Zbigniew Brzezinski and the Cold War. Drawing on Brzezinski’s previously secret personal diaries, Luce shows the reader how this brilliant Polish-American foresaw the coming decline of the Soviet Union – and used every tool of American policy to make sure it happened. Luce explains how time after time Brzezinski got the big issues right – from Russia and China and the Middle East. But he’s also searingly honest about Brzezinski's flaws – his intellectual arrogance and sometimes ruthless ambition. Through Brzezinski's life, he was constantly compared to his émigré intellectual twin, Henry Kissinger. Readers of this book will likely conclude that Zbig was the true visionary -- David Ignatius, New York Times bestselling author

Author Information

Edward Luce is the Financial Times’s chief US commentator and columnist. He is the author of three acclaimed books: The Retreat of Western Liberalism (2017), Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent (2012) and In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India (2007). He appears regularly on CNN, NPR, MSNBC’s Morning Joe and the BBC. He lives in Washington, DC.

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