The Folly and the Glory

America, Russia, and Political Warfare: 1945-2020

By: Tim Weiner

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

From Tim Weiner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, an urgent and gripping account of the 75-year battle between the US and Russia that led to the election and impeachment of an American president.

With vivid storytelling and riveting insider accounts, Weiner traces the roots of political warfare - the conflict America and Russia have waged with espionage, sabotage, diplomacy, and disformation - from 1945 until 2020. America won the Cold War, but Russia is winning today. Vladimir Putin helped to put his chosen candidate in the White House with a covert campaign that continues to this moment. Putin’s Russia has revived Soviet-era intelligence operations gaining ever more potent information from - and influence over - the American people and government. Yet the US has put little power into its defense. This has put American democracy in peril.

Weiner takes us behind closed doors, illuminating Russian and American intelligence operations and their consequences. To get to the heart of what is at stake and find potential solutions, he examines long-running 20th-century CIA operations, the global political machinations of the Soviet KGB around the world, the erosion of American political warfare after the Cold War, and how 21st-century Russia has kept the Cold War alive. The Folly and the Glory is an urgent call to our leaders and citizens to understand the nature of political warfare - and to change course before it’s too late.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company

©2020 Tim Weiner (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, 2020

Must read, beautifully written and narrated

A fantastic piece of research and writing and wonderfully narrated as well. If you're interested in the history of political warfare, up until 2020, this is an essential book to have.

Listen at 1.1 Speed - Ahhh!

If you listen at normal speed- horrible, like something went wrong. Much better at 1.1 😊

Brilliant historical encapsulation of political warfare

Understanding the roots of disinformation, misinformation and the manipulation of populaces through history is incredibly important, especially now as our own society has been brought to its knees because of the political machinations of an enemy. Anyone interested in history, demagogues, the media, politics needs to read this book. The performance was excellent, the story was so compelling I literally couldn’t stop listening to it. I want to read all of Tim Weiner’s books.

Amazing book.

This book is amazing. It starts just before the cold war begins and ends in our current day. Should be required reading for every student in high school.

Magisterial

One of the most important books to understand the Russian point of view in cyber conflict.