Kissinger.: (The idealist) - Volume 1,

No American statesman has been as revered and as reviled as Henry Kissinger.

Hailed by some as the 'indispensable man', whose advice has been sought by every president from Kennedy to Obama, Kissinger has also attracted immense hostility from critics who have cast him as an amoral Machiavellian - the ultimate cold-blooded 'realist'.

Niall Ferguson has created an extraordinary panorama of Kissinger's world, and a paradigm-shifting reappraisal of the man.

Only through knowledge of Kissinger's early life can we understand his debt to the philosophy of idealism. And only by tracing his rise, fall and revival as an adviser to John F.

Kennedy, Nelson Rockefeller and, finally, Richard Nixon can we appreciate the magnitude of his contribution to the theory of diplomacy, grand strategy and nuclear deterrence.