|
The Best and the Brightest (平装)
by David Halberstam
| Category:
Vietnam War, American politics, American history, History |
| Market price: ¥ 178.00
MSL price:
¥ 148.00
[ Shop incentives ]
|
| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A compelling narrative of how America slid into the quagmire in Vietnam. |
| If you want us to help you with the right titles you're looking for, or to make reading recommendations based on your needs, please contact our consultants. |
|
| |
AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 6 items |
|
|
From the Foreword by Senator John McCain, USA
<2008-04-29 00:00>
For anyone who aspires to a position of national leadership, no matter the circumstances of his or her birth, this book should be mandatory reading. And anyone who feels a need, as a confused former prisoner of war once felt the need, for insights into how a great and good nation can lose a war and see its worthy purposes and principles destroyed by self-delusion can do no better than to read and reread David Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest. |
|
|
Los Angeles Times, USA
<2008-04-29 00:00>
Deeply moving... We cannot help but feel the compelling power of this narrative... Dramatic and tragic, a chain of events overwhelming in their force, a distant war embodying illusions and myths, terror and violence, confusions and courage, blindness, pride, and arrogance. |
|
|
The Boston Globe, USA
<2008-04-29 00:00>
The most comprehensive saga of how America became involved in Vietnam... [I]t is also The Iliad of the American empire and The Odyssey of this nation’s search for its idealistic soul.
|
|
|
Max Frankel, New York Times Book Review, USA
<2008-04-29 00:00>
[Robert McNamara] contends the story of how 'the best and brightest' got it wrong in Vietnam has not been told. But David Halberstam, who applied that ironic phrase to his rendering of the tale twenty-three years ago, told it better. |
|
|
Matherson (MSL quote), USA
<2008-04-30 00:00>
"The Best and the Brightest" is the definitive story of how the White House got up to its eyeballs in the Vietnam War before anyone noticed. By the time the more enlightened members of the Kennedy/Johnson Administrations started to question the policy - "question" being a euphemism for realizing the war was a terrible, cruel, disastrous, mistake - too many top policymakers were invested in the decision to "send the boys in." Ironically, the hands-on involvement of the two Presidents - both so talented and capable - was totally counterproductive, as Kennedy's hairy-chested anti-Communist campaign rhetoric and Johnson's "can-do" philosophy simply became part of the problem. Halberstam is expert at exposing the hubris of some of the supposed elite of the day - McGeorge Bundy a favored target, but let's not forget Walt Rostow, Dean Acheson, Robert MacNamara and Dean Rusk - all prisoners of their own perceived brilliance. "A Bright Shining Lie" by Neil Sheehan is the ideal companion. |
|
|
Robert Crawford (MSL quote), USA
<2008-04-30 00:00>
As a view into the making of the Americn elite that got us into the Vietnam mess, the depth of this book is simply unsurpassed. They were so convinced of their brilliance and competence that they could not imagine they could make really big mistakes. And much of that arrogance came from Harvard and old money.
What makes this book tower above the rest is the way that you get to know the major players, from McGeorge Bundy to McNamara to Lyndon Johnson. THey are real people in this book, which brims with the most vivid mini-biographies, fascinating details that make the reader - or at least me - want to dig much much deeper. The details are often incredible, such as the way that McNamara threw himself so deeply into his work that he nearly had a car accident while thinking about re-making Ford or how Bundy faked, brilliantly, having written a paper in prep school by speaking aloud. It all feeds into the portrait of a self-satisfied elite that failed. There is wisdom in the ability to doubt oneself.
While one can quibble with many of Halberstams's points and assertions, as historians are now doing, this is a great place to start to learn about modern American history and government. Its lessons can stimulate a lifetime of study, which it did for me. This book made such a deep impresion on me that it changed my life.
THere is no doubt that this is Halbertam's greatest work. Highest recommendation. |
|
|
|
1 Total 1 pages 6 items |
|
|
|
|
|
|
