Présidents & chefs d'État

'A great accomplishment . . . A wonderful reflection of an extraordinary sweep of history' Barack Obama<BR><BR>Timely, intimate and important, the long-awaited memoirs from one of the most influential leaders of our times<BR><BR>For 16 years, Angela Merkel was Chancellor of Germany. She led the country through numerous crises, shaping both Germany and international politics with her actions and attitudes. In her memoirs, co-written with her long-time political advisor Beate Baumann, she reflects on her life in two German states - 35 years in the German Democratic Republic, 35 years in reunited Germany.<BR><BR>More intimately than ever before, she talks about her childhood, youth, and studies in the GDR and the dramatic year of 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell and her political life began. She also shares recollections and insights from her meetings and conversations with the world's most powerful people. Discussing significant national, European, and international turning points, she shows how the decisions were made that shaped our times. Her book offers a unique insight into the inner workings of power - and is a compelling plea for freedom.

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"Peace and justice are hard work, but Giorgio La Pira taught us how one person can move mountains. This small anecdote illustrates how he understood the importance and power of civil society: One evening Giorgio called me (Cora) in New York, looking for Peter. But Peter was in Strasbourg at the European Court of Human Rights. He needed Peter to meet him the next day in Florence, fifteen hours away. I tracked Peter down at the restaurant where he had gone for dinner, gave La Pira the number, and Peter made the next train. As it turned out, Giorgio wanted to convey an urgent personal message to the US Secretary of State, Dean Rusk: if the US bombed Hanoi, there would be no possibility of peace talks. You need to read this remarkable book to get the rest of this story and many more. We all should have learned about Mayor La Pira in school, but like so many other citizen diplomats, he and his unique work for peace are not in our history books.Thank you, Ryan and Molly, for bringing the life and work of this giant peacemaker to new generations of readers." --Cora Weiss: Early member of Women Strike for Peace (WSP), President of The Hague Appeal for Peace, and former President of the International Peace Bureau from 2000-2006. Peter Weiss: Director of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy and Vice President

A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making-from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracyIn the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency-a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation's highest office.Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune's Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden.A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective-the story of one man's bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of "hope and change," and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible.This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama's conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERA SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, ECONOMIST, DAILY TELEGRAPH, EVENING STANDARD, OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR'Undoubtedly the best single-volume life of Churchill ever written' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday TimesA magnificently fresh and unexpected biography of Churchill, by one of Britain's most acclaimed historiansWinston Churchill towers over every other figure in twentieth-century British history. By the time of his death at the age of 90 in 1965, many thought him to be the greatest man in the world.There have been over a thousand previous biographies of Churchill. Andrew Roberts now draws on over forty new sources, including the private diaries of King George VI, used in no previous Churchill biography to depict him more intimately and persuasively than any of its predecessors. The book in no way conceals Churchill's faults and it allows the reader to appreciate his virtues and character in full: his titanic capacity for work (and drink), his ability see the big picture, his willingness to take risks and insistence on being where the action was, his good humour even in the most desperate circumstances, the breadth and strength of his friendships and his extraordinary propensity to burst into tears at unexpected moments. Above all, it shows us the wellsprings of his personality - his lifelong desire to please his father (even long after his father's death) but aristocratic disdain for the opinions of almost everyone else, his love of the British Empire, his sense of history and its connection to the present.During the Second World War, Churchill summoned a particular scientist to see him several times for technical advice. 'It was the same whenever we met', wrote the young man, 'I had a feeling of being recharged by a source of living power.' Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt's emissary, wrote 'Wherever he was, there was a battlefront.' Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, Churchill's essential partner in strategy and most severe critic in private, wrote in his diary, 'I thank God I was given such an opportunity of working alongside such a man, and of having my eyes opened to the fact that occasionally such supermen exist on this earth.'

Alfred Rosenberg gefiel sich in seiner Rolle als Intellektueller und Chefideologe der Nationalsozialisten. Gerade das aber machte ihn besonders unbeliebt innerhalb der NS-Führungselite. Intrigen und Konkurrenzverhalten nahmen zu, als Hitler ihn zum 'Beauftragten des Führers für die Überwachung der gesamten geistigen und weltanschaulichen Schulung und Erziehung der NSDAP' ernannte und Rosenberg weitgehende Rechte auf nahezu allen Gebieten für sich reklamierte. Mit dem nach ihm benannten Einsatzstab und als 'Reichsminister für die besetzten Ostgebiete' war er vor allem mit dem europaweiten Raub von Kunst- und Kulturgütern beschäftigt. Bis zu seiner Hinrichtung 1946 blieb er seinen antisemitischen Grundüberzeugungen treu. Angesichts der Vielzahl von Rosenbergs Ämtern und des umfangreichen Dokumentenbestands - darunter auch die 2013 gefundenen Tagebücher - rückt Volker Koop in seiner Biographie Rosenbergs Unbeirrbarkeit ideologischen Denkens in den Mittelpunkt und legt die Diskrepanz zwischen seiner übersteigerten Egomanie und seinem tatsächlichen Einfluss dar.

Drawing on original research, including personal interviews with President Abdullah Gül as well as his wife and close circle of colleagues and friends, this fascinating account offers readers a portrait of a man who has been at the heart of the political, economic and cultural developments that have brought Turkey to international prominence in recent years.<BR> <BR>In 2002 Abdullah Gül’s democratically-elected party gained power and challenged Turkey’s republican and secular legacy, and shortly after Gül led Turkey’s attempts to receive an accession date for the European Union. In 2007 he became the first president of Turkey with a background in Islamic politics – causing political commentators to hail his victory as a “new era in Turkish politics” – and he has, ever since, been a major figure in Turkey’s diplomatic relationships in the Middle East and international political arena.<BR> <BR>Gerald MacLean’s absorbing biography of this significant politician throws light on important episodes of Turkey’s recent history.

A Financial Times Best Book of the Year<BR><BR>The definitive biography of Zhou Enlai, the first premier and preeminent diplomat of the People's Republic of China, who protected his country against the excesses of his boss-Chairman Mao.<BR><BR>Zhou Enlai spent twenty-seven years as premier of the People's Republic of China and ten as its foreign minister. He was also its legendary spymaster. Richard Nixon proclaimed him "the greatest statesman of our era." Yet Zhou has always been overshadowed by Chairman Mao. Chen Jian brings Zhou into the light, offering a nuanced portrait of a revolutionary and master diplomat whose vision shaped China and the broader world.<BR><BR>Born to a declining mandarin family in 1898, Zhou received a classical education and as a teenager spent time in modernizing Japan. Zhou embraced communist revolution as a vehicle for China's own development, yet Zhou was never a committed Maoist. While he worked closely with the chairman, he used his extraordinary political and bureaucratic skill to mitigate the damage caused by Mao's radicalism and maintain China's international standing.<BR><BR>When Zhou died in 1976, the China we know today was not yet visible on the horizon. He never saw a glistening Shanghai skyline or the emergence of Chinese capitalism. But the Chinese influence now felt in every corner of the globe rests on Zhou's work.

Mit der Edition seiner gesammelten Reden zieht Altbundespräsident Heinz Fischer die eindrucksvolle Bilanz seiner mehr als fünf Jahrzehnte umfassenden politischen Karriere. Fischers Fähigkeit, auch komplexe politische Sachverhalte verständlich zu formulieren, und sein soziales Engagement machten ihn bereits früh zu einem herausragenden Vermittler in politischen Debatten. Seine zwischen 1971 und 2025 entstandenen Wortbeiträge lassen etwa die Erinnerungspolitik der Nachkriegsjahre, die Reformen der Kreisky-Ära, das Ende des Kalten Kriegs und Österreichs EU-Beitritt wieder lebendig werden. 'Politik braucht ein Gewissen' ist nicht nur das Zeugnis einer reichen politischen Laufbahn, sondern auch ein hochaktuelles Plädoyer für demokratische Grundwerte, sozialen Zusammenhalt und die europäische Integration.'Streitbarkeit und zugleich die Fähigkeit zum Konsens, das hat den Politiker Heinz Fischer ausgezeichnet, drinnen und draußen, in den eigenen Reihen und gegenüber der demokratischen Konkurrenz.'Frank-Walter Steinmeier'Moralische Autorität wird einem weder in die Wiege gelegt noch mit einem hohen Amt verliehen. Sie wird ausschließlich durch das eigene Tun und Handeln erworben, durch Erfahrung und Weitsicht, Integrität und Glaubwürdigkeit - Attribute, die Heinz Fischer in beispielloser Weise in sich vereint.'Doris Bures'[Heinz Fischer ist jemand], der mit beiden Füßen fest auf dem Boden der Demokratie steht, der sich immer ausgesprochen hat für die Menschenrechte, gegen Rassismus, gegen Antisemitismus, der ein Garant war dafür, dass in diesem Land die politische Ethik aufrechterhalten wird, und er war ein glühender Europäer.'Hugo Portisch

From the author of the “insightful and well-crafted” (The Wall Street Journal) Kennedy and King comes a heart-wrenching and sensitive examination of the tragic loss of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s premature son, Patrick, and how their shared grief brought them closer together in the months leading up to his assassination. <BR><BR>In April 1963, the White House announced that Jackie was pregnant with a sibling for Caroline and John Jr.—joyful news after years of miscarriages and a stillbirth in 1956. But on August 7th, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy was born six weeks premature and died less than two days later.<BR> <BR> In this probing, soulful account of the struggle to save Patrick, Steven Levingston takes us inside the long-troubled relationship of Jack and Jackie as they faced one of the most difficult experiences of their marriage. With a “perceptive and eloquent” (The Christian Science Monitor) voice, Levingston reveals how Patrick’s death, tragic as it was, ultimately brought the couple closer together and set the President on a trajectory to be a better husband and father in the months leading up to their fateful campaign trip to Dallas.<BR> <BR> In a parallel storyline, Levingston reveals the largely unknown role President Kennedy played in modernizing an important corner of American health care. After Patrick’s death, he ordered studies into the primitive state of premature care and drummed up millions of dollars in government funding, igniting a revolution in treatments that over the decades have saved millions of infants thanks to the invention of baby ventilators, new drugs, and modern neonatal intensive care units.<BR> <BR> For his definitive account of Patrick’s brief but influential life, Levingston draws on first-ever interviews with doctors who treated Jackie and Patrick, in-depth revelations of the Secret Service agent in whose speeding car Jackie nearly gave birth prematurely, and on new archival documents. Twilight of Camelot is a fresh and humanizing portrait of one of the most famous and complicated couples of the 20th century, and a pulsating drama that illuminates one of the least-known periods in Kennedy family history.

Die eindringliche und bewegende Autobiographie eines furchtlosen Oppositionsführers, der den höchsten Preis für seine Überzeugungen zahlen musste.Nawalny begann mit der Arbeit an PATRIOTim Jahr 2020, kurz nach dem Giftanschlag auf ihn. Es ist die umfassende Geschichte seines Lebens: seine Jugend, seine Berufung zum Aktivisten, seine Ehe und Familie sowie sein Einsatz für Demokratie und Freiheit in Russland angesichts einer Supermacht, die ihn unbedingt zum Schweigen bringen will. PATRIOT zeigt Nawalnys absolute Überzeugung: Der Wandel ist nicht aufzuhalten. Er wird kommen. Anschaulich und mit spannenden Details, einschließlich bislang unveröffentlichter Aufzeichnungen aus dem Gefängnis, schildert Nawalny seinen politischen Werdegang, die zahlreichen Anschläge auf ihn und seine Vertrauten und die hartnäckigen Kampagnen, die er und sein Team gegen das zunehmend diktatorische Regime zu führen wagten. Nawalnys Witwe, Julija Nawalnaja, sagt: "Dieses Buch ist nicht nur das Zeugnis von Alexejs Leben, sondern auch von seinem standhaften Kampf gegen die Diktatur - ein Kampf, für den er alles gab, einschließlich sein Leben. Die Leser werden den Mann kennenlernen, den ich zutiefst geliebt habe - einen Mann von umfassender Integrität und unbeugsamem Mut. Seine Geschichte wird nicht nur sein Andenken ehren, sondern auch andere Menschen inspirieren, sich für das Richtige einzusetzen und nie die Werte aus den Augen zu verlieren, die wirklich zählen."Geschrieben mit der Leidenschaft, dem Esprit, der Aufrichtigkeit und dem Wagemut, für die er zu Recht bewundert wurde, ist PATRIOT Nawalnys Abschiedsbrief an die Welt: eine bewegende Darstellung seiner letzten Jahre, die er im brutalsten Gefängnis der Welt verbrachte, eine Mahnung, warum die Grundsätze der individuellen Freiheit so wichtig sind, und ein mitreißender Aufruf, das Werk fortzuführen, für das er sein Leben gab.

“This is historical research at its best.” — Dan Carlin"I thought I knew the story but learned much that I didn’t know. Outstanding!"— Richard Rhodes"A well-written opus." — The Wall Street JournalPresident Truman’s choice to drop the atomic bomb is the most debated decision in the 20th Century. But what if Truman’s actual decision wasn’t what everyone thinks it was?The conventional narrative is that American leaders had a choice: Invade Japan, which would have cost millions of Allied and Japanese lives, or instead, use the atom bomb in the hope of convincing Japan to surrender. Truman, the story goes, carefully weighed the pros and cons before deciding that the atomic bomb would be used against Japanese cities, as the lesser of two evils.But nuclear historian Alex Wellerstein argues that is not what happened. Based on a close reading of the historical record, The Most Awful Responsibility shows that, despite his reputation as an ardent defender of the atomic bomb, Truman:- Wanted to avoid the “murder” and “slaughter” of innocent civilians- Believed that the atomic bomb should never be used again- Hoped that nuclear weapons would be outlawed in his lifetimeNot only did Truman not take part in the decision to use the bomb, but the one major decision that he did make was a very different one — one that he himself did not fully understand until after the atomic bomb was used. The weight of that decision, and that misunderstanding, became the major reason that atomic bombs have not been used again since World War II.Wellerstein makes a startling case that Truman was possibly the most anti-nuclear American president of the twentieth century, but his ambitions were strongly constrained by the domestic and international politics of the postwar world and the early Cold War. This book is a must-read for all who want to truly understand not only why the bomb was dropped on Japan but also why it has not been used since.