The Folly and the Glory

"The Folly and the Glory is a riveting spy thriller made all the more chilling because thanks to Tim Weiner's meticulous reporting, it is all true. Anyone trying to understand the current tensions between the U.S. and Russia over election interference and much else needs to read this fascinating history."
—Jane Mayer, author of Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

“The Folly and the Glory is a wake-up call to the nation about the threat from Russia. This book details the seventy-five-year battle between the United States and Russia—the success and the failures. As a former Director of the CIA and Secretary of Defense, I can attest to the reality of the political warfare. The most sobering conclusion is that we may be in danger of losing that war.”
—Leon E. Panetta, chairman of the Panetta Institute for Public Policy and former Secretary of Defense

“How has Russia gained the upper hand in the decades-long political warfare between our two countries? The Folly and the Glory deals with that terrifying question, perhaps the most important national security issue facing the United States. Tim Weiner has unique insights about this struggle, achieved through thirty-five years of reporting and writing.”
—the Honorable William Perry, former Secretary of Defense

"In its shadowy, often shocking, political warfare against the Soviet Union, America was often one step behind. Now it is losing ground to Russia. American democracy is teetering on the precipice -- and The Folly and the Glory is critical to understanding how Putin and his political warriors have brought us to the brink."
—Asha Rangappa, Yale University's Jackson Institute for Public Affairs and former FBI special agent

"With wit, wisdom, and passion, Tim Weiner, a brilliant investigative historian, chronicles the wild and unsettling tale of the covert political warfare that has transpired between the United States and Russia during and after the Cold War—a clandestine clash that Moscow ultimately won with its successful attack on the 2016 election. The Folly and the Glory is a gripping and alarming page-turner revealing harrowing stories of skulduggery, subterfuge, and malice—and a clear and compelling warning that American democracy is threatened by enemies abroad and their witting and unwitting allies at home."
—David Corn, co-author of Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump

“Tim Weiner, our most intrepid historian of national security’s dark secrets, pulls off another triumph with The Folly and the Glory, a fast-paced and revelatory chronicle showing that the Kremlin’s campaign to subvert American democracy is but the latest chapter in a struggle that began with the Cold War—and the blowback to the type of ‘political warfare’ that the U.S. invented.”
—Fred Kaplan, author of The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War and Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War

“There is no bigger or more consequential modern history than this. Writing with his inimitable fierce, forceful urgency, Tim Weiner traces the eye-opening and astounding story of 75 years of shadow conflict between the US and Russia, from murder plots in the jungles of Congo to jazz in Poland to the Democratic Party's servers in 2016. This book will stand alongside works like Evan Thomas and Walter Issacson's The Wise Men and Robert Gates' From The Shadows as the essential histories of the Cold War, a war that as Weiner outlines, never really ended in Russia's eyes."
—Garrett M. Graff, author of the New York Times bestseller The Only Plane in The Sky