LEGACY OF ASHES: THE HISTORY OF THE CIA
by Tim Weiner,
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
National Book Award Winner
National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
One of the Best Books of the Year: Time, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Economist, The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Salon

For the last sixty years, the CIA has managed to maintain a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, burying its blunders in top-secret archives. Its mission was to know the world. When it did not succeed, it set out to change the world. Its failures have handed us, in the words of President Eisenhower, “a legacy of ashes.”

Now Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tim Weiner offers the first definitive history of the CIA—and everything is on the record. LEGACY OF ASHES is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA itself, and hundreds of interviews with CIA veterans, including ten Directors of Central Intelligence. It takes the CIA from its creation after World War II, through its battles in the cold war and the war on terror, to its near-collapse after 9/ll.

Tim Weiner’s past work on the CIA and American intelligence was hailed as “impressively reported” and “immensely entertaining” in The New York Times. The Wall Street Journal called it “truly extraordinary . . . the best book ever written on a case of espionage.” Here is the hidden history of the CIA: why eleven presidents and three generations of CIA officers have been unable to understand the world; why nearly every CIA director has left the agency in worse shape than he found it; and how these failures have profoundly jeopardized our national security.

"MUST READING for anyone interested in the CIA or American intelligence since World War II." The Washington Post   Read the full review

"THE BEST BOOK I'VE READ YET ON THE CIA'S COVERT ACTIONS." Edward Jay Epstein, The Wall Street Journal   Read the full review

"A TIMELY AND VITAL CONTRIBUTION...[THAT] GLITTERS WITH RELEVANCE." Los Angeles Times   Read the full review

"THIS IS BY FAR THE SCARIEST BOOK OF THE YEAR." The Christian Science Monitor   Read the full review

"RIVETING. . .A FASCINATING YET SCATHING HISTORY OF AMERICA'S SPY SERVICE." The Boston Globe    Read the full review

"ENGROSSING, COMPREHENSIVE." The New York Times   Read the full review

"LEGACY OF ASHES IS RECENT HISTORY AT ITS BEST, AND ITS MOST DISMAYING." The Seattle Times   Read the full review

"AN EPIC, EYE-OPENING HISTORY OF AN AGENCY OUT OF CONTROL."
Mother Jones   Read the full review

"ALL AMERICANS SHOULD READ THE BOOK TO GET A FULL PICTURE OF THE OUTRAGES PERPETRATED BY THE AGENCY IN OUR NAME WITH OUR TAX DOLLARS." The Baltimore Sun  

"EVERY CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY, AS WELL AS AMERICANS CONCERNED ABOUT OUR GOVERNMENT'S UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD, SHOULD READ THIS BOOK." The Dallas Morning News  

"SMART, EXTENSIVELY RESEARCHED, EXCEEDINGLY WELL WRITTEN AND PASSIONATE." The Toronto Globe and Mail   Read the full review

"MARVELOUS AND CONVINCING." Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars: The Secret
History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden

"A FASCINATING, DEEPLY SCARY BOOK." Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein: His
Life and Universe; former chief of CNN and Time Magazine

"A TIMELY, IMMENSELY READABLE, AND HIGHLY CRITICAL HISTORY OF THE CIA." Mark Bowden, Author of BLACK HAWK DOWN

"A CREDIBLE AND DAMNING INDICTMENT OF AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE POLICY."
Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"APPALLING, ABSORBING HISTORY."
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"EXTENSIVELY RESEARCHED, EXCEEDINGLY WELL-WRITTEN AND PASSIONATE." Toronto Globe and Mail