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Title details for Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner - Available

Legacy of Ashes

The History of the CIA

by Tim Weiner
Stefan Rudnicki
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
2 of 2 copies available

This is the book the CIA does not want you to read. For over sixty years, the CIA has maintained a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, never disclosing its blunders to the American public. It spun its own truth to the nation while reality lay buried in classified archives. Now, Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times reporter Tim Weiner offers a stunning indictment of the CIA, a deeply flawed organization that has never deserved America's confidence.

Legacy of Ashes is based on more than fifty thousand documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA. Everything is on the record. There are no anonymous sources, no blind quotations. With shocking revelations that will make headlines, Tim Weiner gets at the truth and tells how the CIA's failures have profoundly jeopardized our national security.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    January 1, 2006

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781483070933
      • File size: 615446 KB
      • Duration: 21:22:10

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Jimmy Carter was appalled when he was told of some of the creepy heads of state that the CIA was paying to stay in power. Even more appalling actions and incompetence come to light in Weiner's history of the agency. Narrator Stefan Rudnicki's attention to the many quotes enhances the text. He has the judgment to leave his voice unchanged for a quote if the source is clear or to modify his speech in such a tiny way, maybe with a word or two of accent, as to micro-impersonate without converting himself into a character. The plethora of foreign words, places, and names gives Rudnicki no pause, and his comfort with many languages strengthens the continuity of the production. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from June 4, 2007
      Is the Central Intelligence Agency a bulwark of freedom against dangerous foes, or a malevolent conspiracy to spread American imperialism? A little of both, according to this absorbing study, but, the author concludes, it is mainly a reservoir of incompetence and delusions that serves no one's interests well. Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times
      correspondent Weiner musters extensive archival research and interviews with top-ranking insiders, including former CIA chiefs Richard Helms and Stansfield Turner, to present the agency's saga as an exercise in trying to change the world without bothering to understand it. Hypnotized by covert action and pressured by presidents, the CIA, he claims, wasted its resources fomenting coups, assassinations and insurgencies, rigging foreign elections and bribing political leaders, while its rare successes inspired fiascoes like the Bay of Pigs and the Iran-Contra affair. Meanwhile, Weiner contends, its proper function of gathering accurate intelligence languished. With its operations easily penetrated by enemy spies, the CIA was blind to events in adversarial countries like Russia, Cuba and Iraq and tragically wrong about the crucial developments under its purview, from the Iranian revolution and the fall of communism to the absence of Iraqi WMDs. Many of the misadventures Weiner covers, at times sketchily, are familiar, but his comprehensive survey brings out the persistent problems that plague the agency. The result is a credible and damning indictment of American intelligence policy.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from September 24, 2007
      Pulitzer Prize–winner Weiner combed through the history books and recently declassified records to offer up this fascinating, comprehensive and sometimes appalling history of the Central Intelligence Agency. Weiner documents everything from the agency's formation in the aftermath of WWII to its failure to prevent the events of September 11, 2001, and every misstep, blunder and international incident in between. For an important book like this one, it's important for an audiobook narrator to have a certain gravitas, and Rudnicki has plenty. His deep, resonant voice keeps the listener riveted and is ideally suited to the serious, historical—and often grim—subject matter. Rudnicki occasionally uses accents to add flavor to the text when reading quotations, but for the most part wisely eschews this practice and simply brings Weiner's words to life. Rudnicki is one of the best narrators in the business, and he's in top form here—Legacy of Ashes
      is one of the best audiobooks of the year. Simultaneous release with the Doubleday hardcover (Reviews, June 4).

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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