Book : The Man Who Ran Washington The Life And Times Of...

-Titulo Original : The Man Who Ran Washington The Life And Times Of James A. Baker Iii

-Fabricante :

Doubleday

-Descripcion Original:

BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times * The Washington Post * Fortune * BloombergFrom two of Americas most revered political journalists comes the definitive biography of legendary White House chief of staff and secretary of state James A. Baker III: the man who ran Washington when Washington ran the world.For a quarter-century, from the end of Watergate to the aftermath of the Cold War, no Republican won the presidency without his help or ran the White House without his advice. James Addison Baker III was the indispensable man for four presidents because he understood better than anyone how to make Washington work at a time when America was shaping events around the world. The Man Who Ran Washington is a page-turning portrait of a power broker who influenced Americas destiny for generations.A scion of Texas aristocracy who became George H. W. Bushs best friend on the tennis courts of the Houston Country Club, Baker had never even worked in Washington until a devastating family tragedy struck when he was thirty-nine. Within a few years, he was leading Gerald Fords campaign and would go on to manage a total of five presidential races and win a sixth for George W. Bush in a Florida recount. He ran Ronald Reagans White House and became the most consequential secretary of state since Henry Kissinger. He negotiated with Democrats at home and Soviets abroad, rewrote the tax code, assembled the coalition that won the Gulf War, brokered the reunification of Germany and helped bring a decades-long nuclear superpower standoff to an end. Ruthlessly partisan during campaign season, Baker governed as the avatar of pragmatism over purity and deal-making over division, a lost art in todays fractured nation.His story is a case study in the acquisition, exercise, and preservation of power in late twentieth-century America and the story of Washington and the world in the modern era--how it once worked and how it has transformed into an era of gridlock and polarization. This masterly biography by two brilliant observers of the American political scene is destined to become a classic. Review A masterclass in political biography.-The EconomistAn illuminating biographical portrait of Mr. Baker, one that describes the arc of his career and, along the way, tells us something about how executive power is wielded in the nation’s capital. . . often has the feel of a novel.-The Wall Street JournalEnthralling, comprehensive . . . The authors rightly highlight the dimensions of Baker’s illustrious career that show so much about what is broken in the current American political system.-The New York Times Book Review“The Man Who Ran Washington . . . will rank alongside it as among the very best books about American political life in the late 20th century.”-The Washington PostPeter Baker and Susan Glasser, a husband and wife team, deliver a masterly biography.-The GuardianA fascinating look at political power.-The New York TimesImmensely informative, nuanced and judicious.-Minneapolis Star TribuneEnthralling.-The Financial TimesA sweeping history as well as an intimate biography, the book is also a fascinating study of how to acquire power in Washington and how to use it to maximum effect.-Foreign AffairsAccomplished . . . Exhaustively reported and fluently written.-CommentaryAmerican political culture is broken, but it hasn’t always been that way. James Addison Baker was -the consummate master at actually getting things done in Washington.-FortuneSuperlative.-The American Conservative“Nobody was better at getting things done than James A. Baker. In a book that is at once fascinating, coolly revealing, and at moments touching, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser have given us a biography worthy of one of the most important figures of the late American Century. If you want to understand power in Washington-or anywhere, for that matter-this is the book for you.” -Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, author