The Wise Men

Six Friends and the World They Made

By: Walter Isaacson, E. Thomas

Narrated by: Jonathan Reese

Six close friends shaped the role their country would play in the dangerous years following World War II. They were the original best and brightest, whose towering intellects, outsize personalities, and dramatic actions would bring order to the postwar chaos, and whose strong response to Soviet expansionism would leave a legacy that dominates American policy to this day.

In April 1945, they converged to advise an untutored new president, Harry Truman. They were Averell Harriman, the freewheeling diplomat and Roosevelt’s special envoy to Churchill and Stalin; Dean Acheson, the secretary of state who was more responsible for the Truman Doctrine than Truman and for the Marshall Plan than General Marshall; George Kennan, selfcast outsider and intellectual darling of the Washington elite; Robert Lovett, assistant secretary of war, undersecretary of state, and secretary of defense throughout the formative years of the Cold War; John McCloy, one of the nation’s most influential private citizens; and Charles Bohlen, adroit diplomat and ambassador to the Soviet Union.

Together they formulated a doctrine of Communist containment that was to be the foundation of American policy, and years later, when much of what they stood for appeared to be sinking in the mire of Vietnam, they were summoned for their steady counsel. It was then that they were dubbed “the Wise Men.” Working in an atmosphere of trust that in today’s Washington would seem quaint, they shaped a new world order that committed a once-reticent nation to defending freedom wherever it sought to flourish.

Disappointed: Couldn't Get Passed the Narrator

This book sounds incredibly interesting and I love Walter Isaacson's works, but I could not get passed the first chapter because of the narrator. His performance was slow, boring, and hesitant with a bunch of mispronunciations.

It was tough getting through the over pronunciation of every word and every "a" pronounced "ā", but I had to stop when he pronounced Joseph Stalin as Joseph Stalēn. Come on!

Very disappointing it since I really rely on audiobooks during my commute to and from work.

Fallout fans: Watch how we get into nukes.

A very interesting inner look into the pathway America took between WWII and the nuclear age...and the personalities who guided us there.

Mispronouncing Joseph Stalin’s name, how does this happen?

Interesting behind the scenes look how historical events came to be, mispronouncing a main characters name is really bizarre

Grand Scope of History

A wonderful book marred by a narrator who struggled with the pronunciation of many names and words. Distracting but not fatal. Great story.

Great book, awful pronunciation

How it’s possible to find a narrator who can’t pronounce the most basic words properly — or find a producer who can’t help — would be funny if the subject matter weren’t so interesting.