The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

More About This Book

Overview
Editorial Reviews
What People Are Saying
Product Details
Related Subjects
Meet the Author
Table of Contents

Overview

In The Icarus Syndrome, Peter Beinart tells a tale as old as the Greeks — a story about the seductions of success. Beinart describes Washington on the eve of three wars — World War One, Vietnam, and Iraq — three moments when American leaders decided they could remake the world in their image. Each time, leading intellectuals declared that history was over, and the spread of democracy was inevitable. Each time, a president held the nation in the palm of his hand. And each time, a war conceived in arrogance brought untold tragedy.

In dazzling color, Beinart portrays three extraordinary generations: the progressives who took America into World War I, led by Woodrow Wilson, the lonely preacher's son who became the closest thing to a political messiah the world had ever seen. The Camelot intellectuals who took America into Vietnam, led by Lyndon Johnson, who lay awake at night after night shaking with fear that his countrymen considered him weak. And George W. Bush and the post-cold war neoconservatives, the romantic bullies who believed they could bludgeon the Middle East and liberate it at the same time. Like Icarus, each of these generations crafted "wings" — a theory about America's relationship to the world. They flapped carefully at first, but gradually lost their inhibitions until, giddy with success, they flew into the sun.

But every era also brought new leaders and thinkers who found wisdom in pain. They reconciled American optimism — our belief that anything is possible — with the realities of a world that will never fully bend to our will. In their struggles lie the seeds of American renewal today. Based on years of research, The Icarus Syndrome is a provocative and strikingly original account of hubris in the American century — and how we learn from the tragedies that result.

Read More Show Less

What People Are Saying

Steve Coll

“Peter Beinart has written a vivid, empathetic, and convincing history of the men and ideas that have shaped the ambitions of American foreign policy during the last century—a story in which human fallibility and idealism flow together. Beinart’s book is not only timely; it is indispensible.”

Jon Meacham

“The Icarus Syndrome does what works of history and journalism do at their very best: use the past to illuminate, in often stark and surprising ways, the challenges of the present. This is an important book.”

Paul Kennedy

“Beinart’s The Icarus Syndrome is very much a book with a message: a cautionary message to avoid hubris and to recognize the messy reality of world politics.”

Sean Wilentz

“The Icarus Syndrome is a confident and contentious history of more than a century of American foreign policy and its recurring tragic flaws.”

George Packer

“Beinart is at his most illuminating when he lingers on forgotten episodes that reveal how difficult it is to understand the implications of any event at any given moment—the extent to which everyone is a prisoner of past failure or past success.”

Leslie H. Gelb

“A highly readable and useful hundred-year account of American ventures abroad that can serve as a path to understanding the past failures and uncovering why policy renewal is now proving so elusive. . . . Beinart usefully grapples with the practical impediments to making good policy.”

Walter Russell Mead

“With this book Beinart vindicates his standing as one of the major thinkers of his generation on the United States’ world role.”

Fareed Zakaria

“Why do we succomb to hubris? Peter Beinart has written a highly intelligent and wonderfully readable book that answers the question by looking at a century of American foreign policy. As with everything Beinart writes, it is lucid, thoughtful and strikingly honest.”

Read More Show Less

Editorial Reviews

Jane Mayer

“Energetically researched and entertainingly written, Peter Beinart’s The Icarus Syndrome is both a fascinating intellectual history and an important coming-of-age parable about his generation’s hard-learned lesson in the limits of American power.”

Geoffrey Wheatcroft

"The Icarus Syndrome is a readable survey of ‘America in the world’ over the past hundred years. Nothing is more chilling than Beinart’s catalog of the continuous, wrong-headed invocation of ‘Munich’ and ‘appeasement.’"

The Economist

"Impressive. . . . Mr Beinart has produced an original and ambitious study."

Newsweek

"A rollicking history. . . . Beinart is a wonderful storyteller. There’s not much that he leaves out of The Icarus Syndrome. (It’s exactly the book I wish I’d had when I was teaching American foreign policy.)"

Leslie H. Gelb

"A highly readable and useful hundred-year account of American ventures abroad that can serve as a path to understanding the past failures and uncovering why policy renewal is now proving so elusive. . . . Beinart usefully grapples with the practical impediments to making good policy."

Walter Russell Mead

"With this book Beinart vindicates his standing as one of the major thinkers of his generation on the United States’ world role."

Fareed Zakaria

"Why do we succomb to hubris? Peter Beinart has written a highly intelligent and wonderfully readable book that answers the question by looking at a century of American foreign policy. As with everything Beinart writes, it is lucid, thoughtful and strikingly honest."

Steve Coll

"Peter Beinart has written a vivid, empathetic, and convincing history of the men and ideas that have shaped the ambitions of American foreign policy during the last century—a story in which human fallibility and idealism flow together. Beinart’s book is not only timely; it is indispensible."

Jon Meacham

"The Icarus Syndrome does what works of history and journalism do at their very best: use the past to illuminate, in often stark and surprising ways, the challenges of the present. This is an important book."

Paul Kennedy

"Beinart’s The Icarus Syndrome is very much a book with a message: a cautionary message to avoid hubris and to recognize the messy reality of world politics."

Sean Wilentz

"The Icarus Syndrome is a confident and contentious history of more than a century of American foreign policy and its recurring tragic flaws."

George Packer

"Beinart is at his most illuminating when he lingers on forgotten episodes that reveal how difficult it is to understand the implications of any event at any given moment—the extent to which everyone is a prisoner of past failure or past success."

The Los Angeles Times

"A brilliant new book about the pendulum swings of U.S. foreign policy between excessive ambition and excessive retrenchment."

The San Francisco Chronicle

"Beinart possesses the analytical skills of a seasoned historian. . . . He’s a smart, reasoned political analyst who doesn’t resort to hyperbole and hysteria when making a point. . . The result is a book that’s generally enlightening."

The Boston Globe

"Informative and engaging. . . . Beinart’s book tackles a great deal of material in an approachable, yet never simplistic, way. . . . The Icarus Syndrome is a valuable addition to the public debate about the United States’s ever evolving role in the world."

The Washington Post

"Powerful. . . . An insightful and enjoyable account of the ideas and individuals that have animated America’s global ambitions over the past century. . . . Required reading."

Carlos Lozada

…an insightful and enjoyable…account of the ideas and individuals that have animated America's global ambitions over the past century…If anything, [Beinart's] account underscores how many of the best-known and most respected intellectuals either despaired at their lack of influence, watched their ideas get twisted beyond recognition or found themselves abandoned precisely at the moment when their insights could have mattered most. The Icarus Syndrome should be required reading for all [George] Kennan wannabes and aspiring Washington wonks. Its lesson: Abandon hope all ye who theorize here.
—The Washington Post

Leslie H. Gelb

…a highly readable and useful hundred-year account of American ventures abroad that can serve as a path to understanding past failures and uncovering why policy renewal is now proving so elusive…[Beinart's] thesis is not new, but it is indefatigably rendered: America's shortcomings flow entirely from hubris or overconfidence, much as the mythical Icarus perished because he flew too near the sun.
—The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

A century of unwise American military adventures is probed in this perceptive study of foreign policy over-reach. Daily Beast and Time contributor Beinart (The Good Fight) highlights three examples of Washington's overconfidence: Woodrow Wilson's “hubris of reason”: the belief that reason, not force, could govern the world; the Kennedy-Johnson administrations' “hubris of toughness” during the Vietnam War; and George W. Bush's “hubris of dominance” in launching the Iraq War. In each case, Beinart finds a dangerous confluence of misleading experience and untethered ideology; the Iraq War, he contends, was fostered both by a 12-year string of easy military triumphs from Panama to Afghanistan, and a belief that America can impose democracy by force. (The book continues the author's ongoing apology for his early support of the Iraq War.) Beinart's analyses are consistently lucid and provocative—e.g., he calls Ronald Reagan “a dove in hawk's feathers,” and his final conclusion is that “Obama will need to... decouple American optimism from the project of American global mastery.” The book amounts to a brief for moderation, good sense, humility, and looking before leaping—virtues that merit Beinart's spirited, cogent defense. (June)

Read More Show Less

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780061456473
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 5/31/2011
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 496
Sales rank: 385,274
Product dimensions: 5.90 (w) x 8.90 (h) x 1.10 (d)

Meet the Author

Peter Beinart is an associate professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation. He is the senior political writer for The Daily Beast and a contributor to Time. Beinart is a former fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of The Good Fight. He lives with his family in Washington, D.C.

Read More Show Less

Introduction 1

Part I The Hubris of Reason

Chapter 1 A Scientific Peace 15

Chapter 2 The Frightening Dwarf 39

Chapter 3 Twice-Born 60

Chapter 4 I Didn't Say It Was Good 83

Part II The Hubris of Toughness

Chapter 5 The Murder of Sheep 109

Chapter 6 The Problem with Men 126

Chapter 7 Saving Sarkhan 141

Chapter 8 Things Are in the Saddle 161

Chapter 9 Liberation 172

Chapter 10 The Scold 188

Chapter 11 Fighting with Rabbits 204

Chapter 12 If There Is a Bear? 218

Part III The Hubris of Dominance

Chapter 13 Nothing Is Consummated 243

Chapter 14 Fukuyama's Escalator 265

Chapter 15 Fathers and Sons 293

Chapter 16 Small Ball 312

Chapter 17 The Opportunity 327

Chapter 18 The Romantic Bully 337

Chapter 19 I'm Delighted to See Mr. Bourne 357

Conclusion The Beautiful Lie 378

Acknowledgments 391

Notes 397

Index 467

Read More Show Less

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 3.5

( 21 )

Your Rating:

Poor

Below Average

Good

Very Good

Exceptional

Review Guidelines

Tell the world what you think of this product.

Add Recommendations

Your Name: Create a Pen Name or Leave Anonymously

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

- HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
- Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
- Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
- Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
- Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
- Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
- Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

- By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
- Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
- See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.

If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble

The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris

Overview

Pick Up In Store

Available on NOOK devices and apps Nook Devices NOOK HD/HD+ Tablet NOOK NOOK Color NOOK Tablet Tablet/Phone NOOK for Windows 8 Tablet NOOK for iOS NOOK for Android NOOK Kids for iPad PC/Mac NOOK for Windows 8 NOOK for PC NOOK for Mac NOOK Study NOOK for Web

All Available Formats & Editions

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

More About This Book

Overview

Editorial Reviews

Jane Mayer

Geoffrey Wheatcroft

The Economist

Newsweek

Leslie H. Gelb

Walter Russell Mead

Fareed Zakaria

Steve Coll

Jon Meacham

Paul Kennedy

Sean Wilentz

George Packer

The Los Angeles Times

The San Francisco Chronicle

The Boston Globe

The Washington Post

Carlos Lozada

Leslie H. Gelb

Publishers Weekly

Product Details

Related Subjects

Meet the Author

Table of Contents

Customer Reviews

5 Star

4 Star

3 Star

2 Star

1 Star

Your Rating:

Your Recommendations:

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

What to exclude from your review:

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

Reminder:

Recommend other products that relate to your review. Just search for them below and share!

Wonderful read about the history of the USA from WWI through Iraq.

An interesting treatment of contemporary US foreign policy

Available on NOOK devices and apps

Nook Devices

NOOK HD/HD+ Tablet

NOOK

NOOK Color

NOOK Tablet

Tablet/Phone

NOOK for Windows 8 Tablet

NOOK for iOS

NOOK for Android

NOOK Kids for iPad

PC/Mac

NOOK for Windows 8

NOOK for PC

NOOK for Mac

NOOK Study

NOOK for Web