“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. The story continues, of course, and so his book is not only timely; it is indispensable.” — Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars
Peter Beinart's provocative account of hubris in the American century describes Washington on the eve of three wars: World War I, Vietnam, and Iraq—three moments when American leaders decided they could remake the world in their image. Each time, leading intellectuals declared that 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 tragedy.
But each catastrophe also imparted wisdom to a new generation of thinkers. These leaders learned to reconcile the American belief that anything is possible with the realities of a world that will never fully conform to this country's will—and in their struggles lie the seeds of American renewal today.
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.
Table of Contents
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
What People are Saying About This
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
