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In The New York Times Book Review, Andrew Roberts reviews the first volume of Niall Ferguson’s new biography of Henry Kissinger. Mr. Roberts writes:
Unlike the revisionists, Ferguson has had access to every part of Kissinger’s vast archive at the Library of Congress, which weighs several tons and comprises 8,380 documents covering 37,645 pages on the digitized database alone. These include a heartfelt essay on “The Eternal Jew” written by the 22-year-old German-born Sergeant Kissinger after witnessing the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp; some loving but uncompromising letters to his parents about his separation from their Orthodox faith; a jejune and somewhat cringe-making teenage note to a would-be girlfriend; and the minutes he took as secretary of a Jewish youth organization to which he belonged as the Nazis were seizing power in his homeland. Although this book is long at 986 pages, and Kissinger has only just joined the Nixon administration as national security adviser when it ends, the sheer quality of the material unearthed justifies the length and detail.
On this week’s podcast, Mr. Ferguson discusses “Kissinger”; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Sloane Crosley talks about her first novel, “The Clasp”; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.