Hubris

Author: Michael Isikoff
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 030734682X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 498

Book Description
The real story behind the investigation of Iraq, and the basis for the MSNBC documentary of the same name hosted by Rachel Maddow Filled with news-making revelations that made it a New York Times bestseller, Hubris takes us behind the scenes at the White House, CIA, Pentagon, State Department, and Congress to show how George W. Bush came to invade Iraq--and how his administration struggled with the devastating fallout. Hubris connects the dots between Bush's expletive-laden outbursts at Saddam Hussein, the bitter battles between the CIA and the White House, the fights within the intelligence community over Saddam's supposed weapons of mass destruction, the outing of an undercover CIA officer, and the Bush administration's misleading sales campaign for war. Written by veteran reporters Michael Isikoff and David Corn, this is an inside look at how a president took the nation to war using faulty and fraudulent intelligence. It's a dramatic page-turner and an intriguing account of conspiracy, backstabbing, bureaucratic ineptitude, journalistic malfeasance, and arrogance.

Imperial Hubris

Author: Michael Scheuer
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1597973084
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 382

Book Description
Though U.S. leaders try to convince the world of their success in fighting al Qaeda, one anonymous member of the U.S. intelligence community would like to inform the public that we are, in fact, losing the war on terror. Further, until U.S. leaders recognize the errant path they have irresponsibly chosen, he says, our enemies will only grow stronger. According to the author, the greatest danger for Americans confronting the Islamist threat is to believe-at the urging of U.S. leaders-that Muslims attack us for what we are and what we think rather than for what we do. Blustering political rhetor.

The Icarus Syndrome

Author: Peter Beinart
Publisher: Melbourne Univ. Publishing
ISBN: 052285804X
Category : Ambition
Languages : en
Pages : 494

Book Description
In The Icarus Syndrome, Peter Beinart tells a tale as old as the Greeks - a story about the seductions of success. Beinart describes Washington on the eve of three wars - World War I, Vietnam and Iraq - three moments when American leaders decided they could remake the world in their image. Each time, leading intellectuals declared that history was over, and the spread of democracy was inevitable. Each time, a president held the nation in the palm of his hand. And each time, a war conceived in arrogance brought untold tragedy. In dazzling colour, Beinart portrays three extraordinary generations: the progressives who took America into World War I, led by Woodrow Wilson, the lonely preacher's son who became the closest thing to a political messiah the world had ever seen. The Camelot intellectuals who took America into Vietnam, led by Lyndon Johnson, who lay awake night after night shaking with fear that his countrymen considered him weak. And George W. Bush and the post-cold war neoconservatives, the romantic bullies who believed they could bludgeon the Middle East and liberate it at the same time. Like Icarus, each of these generations crafted 'wings' - a theory about America's relationship to the world. They flapped carefully at first, but gradually lost their inhibitions until, giddy with success, they flew into the sun. But every era also brought new leaders and thinkers who found wisdom in pain. They reconciled American optimism - our belief that anything is possible - with the realities of a world that will never fully bend to our will. In their struggles lie the seeds of American renewal today. Based on years of research, The Icarus Syndrome is a provocative and strikingly original account of hubris in the American century - and how we learn from the tragedies that result.

Hubris

Author: Alistair Horne
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062397826
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Book Description
“Eminently provocative and readable.”—The Wall Street Journal Sir Alistair Horne has been a close observer of war and history for more than fifty years and in this wise and masterly work, he revisits six battles of the past century and examines the strategies, leadership, preparation, and geopolitical goals of aggressors and defenders to reveal the one trait that links them all: hubris. In Greek tragedy, hubris is excessive human pride that challenges the gods and ultimately leads to total destruction of the offender. From the 1905 Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War, to Hitler's 1941 bid to capture Moscow, to MacArthur's disastrous advance in Korea, to the French downfall at Dien Bien Phu, Horne shows how each of these battles was won or lost due to excessive hubris on one side or the other. In a sweeping narrative written with his trademark erudition and wit, Horne provides a meticulously detailed analysis of the ground maneuvers employed by the opposing armies in each battle. He also explores the strategic and psychological mindset of the military leaders involved to demonstrate how devastating combinations of human ambition and arrogance led to overreach. Making clear the danger of hubris in warfare, his insights hold resonant lessons for civilian and military leaders navigating today's complex global landscape. A dramatic, colorful, stylishly-written history, Hubris is a much-needed reflection on war from a master of his field.

Too Proud to Lead

Author: Ben Laker
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472973054
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
A fascinating investigation into how leaders' confidence can transform into hubris, which has the devastating potential to lead not only to their own downfall, but also to the collapse of entire organizations. While confidence is a vital attribute for any successful business leader, it is often taken too far – they fall into the pitfalls of hubris and, like Icarus, find themselves flying too close to the sun. Laying out the dangers of arrogant overconfidence for both individuals and organizations, this book explores both the economic and psychological costs of this destructive behaviour, and boldly argues for a new, revolutionary approach to leadership. Written by three world-renowned experts, Too Proud to Lead provides readers with the essential arsenal of tools for understanding, identifying, anticipating and coping with hubris, in both themselves and in their workplace. Supported by fascinating case studies and enlightening analysis, this is a much-needed antidote to the hubris plague spreading through the leadership of today.

Staggering Hubris

Author: Josh Berry
Publisher: Eye & Lightning Books
ISBN: 1785633236
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Book Description
The memoir of Boris Johnson's most classic spad: The 'Rona Years, Vol. 1 'A pitch-perfect send-up' Evening Standard Unless you're a woman on Tinder between the ages of 19 and 30 in the Clapham area, or a high-end cocaine dealer operating in South West London, you probably won't have heard of Rafe Hubris, BA (Oxon). Despite that, he's a crucial figure in the life of our nation. As Boris Johnson's most classic special adviser (spad) at Number 10, he helped the UK government skilfully and efficiently control the Covid crisis, containing it for good by the end of 2020. In the first of what will doubtless be many memoirs as Rafe travels his own inevitable journey to the premiership, this fly-on-the-wall account documents his Year of 'Rona in its entirety (and iniquity). Even non-Oxbridge readers (for whom the author has taken care to keep his language as accessible as possible) will come away from this volume struck by how lucky we are to have him. Floreat Etona!* *Note for non-Oxbridge readers: this means 'May Eton flourish' in Latin.** **Latin is the language of Ancient Rome and its empire.

Hubris

Author: Meghnad Desai
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780300219494
Category : Economic forecasting
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
A frank assessment of economists' blindness before the financial crash in 2007-2008 and what must be done to avert a sequel The failure of economists to anticipate the global financial crisis and mitigate the impact of the ensuing recession has spurred a public outcry. Economists are under fire, but questions concerning exactly how to redeem the discipline remain unanswered. In this provocative book, renowned economist Meghnad Desai investigates the evolution of economics and maps its trajectory against the occurrence of major political events to provide a definitive answer. Desai underscores the contribution of hubris to economists' calamitous lack of foresight, and he makes a persuasive case for the profession to re-engage with the history of economic thought. He dismisses the notion that one over-arching paradigm can resolve all economic eventualities while urging that an array of already-available theories and approaches be considered anew for the insights they may provide toward preventing future economic catastrophes. With an accessible style and keen common sense, Desai offers a fresh perspective on some of the most important economic issues of our time.

Ego & Hubris

Author: Harvey Pekar
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0307415112
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 162

Book Description
“Michael Malice is one of the most puzzling twenty-first century Americans I have ever met.” –Harvey Pekar Who’s Michael Malice, and how did he become the subject of a graphic novel by Harvey Pekar, the curmudgeon from Cleveland? First of all, Michael Malice is a real person. He’s 5’6” and weighs 130 pounds. Although on the cusp of thirty, he could easily pass for a scrawny teenager. One day Michael, a guy with a patchwork employment record and dreams as big as his ego, meets Harvey and begins to relay all these wild stories about his life. Simple as that. Harvey thinks the guy is bright but a bit of a riddle–though not the kind wrapped in an enigma. It’s strange. He seems like the type of person you meet every day, rather ordinary, until you really get to know him. Then you realize he’s exceptional, unusual, and contradictory. Pleasant one minute, really nasty the next. But isn’t cruelty part of human nature? We digress. . . . Harvey writes up and illustrates one of Michael Malice’s tales, “Fish Story,” which is part of American Splendor: Our Movie Year. It makes a splash and spawns this book, Harvey’s first hardcover, a graphic novel event about one guy’s life. Ego & Hubris relates how, a year and a half after his birth in the Ukraine, Michael Malice moved with his parents to Brooklyn. He’s an intransigent kid, a hard-ass–both a demon to and demonized by the people who cross his path. His life is a constant struggle for validation in a world where the machine keeps trying to break him down. But Michael has a way with people . . . or rather, has a way of getting even with people. Hey, if you can’t live up to your parents’ expectations, at least you can live up to your name. Michael had never come close to fulfilling his huge dreams–until now. And just as Harvey’s been the everyman for a certain generation of graphic-novel readers, Michael Malice will be the everyman for a new generation. From the Hardcover edition.

Hubris Falls

Author: Matthew S. Hiley
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group
ISBN: 162634650X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
A Most Fantastic Tragedy The year was 1997. For Brian “Legs” Hamilton and his friends, it was the summer that followed graduation from college, the summer before life as an adult actually began—back when they were still invincible. It became the summer when anything that might have remained innocent in their lives came to an abrupt end. Legs and his friends embark upon one last road trip before they must face the real world. They set their sites on rafting amidst the canyons of the Rio Grande River along the Mexican border as their final chaotic drug-fueled exploit. A five-day adventure that was supposed to be the best time in these young men’s lives ends as a nightmare that will haunt them forever. We all love our friends. We think we know them, and we think we know ourselves. Sometimes, though, circumstances spiral out of control, and life forces us to confront who we are and whom we’ve surrounded ourselves with. Hubris Falls is a fast-paced, darkly comic tale of a group of men on their final, drug-fueled bender before adulthood who are trying to find their way—but are finding only the harshness and tragedy of life instead.

Power, Greed, and Hubris

Author: James R. Crockett
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1617039195
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291

Book Description
From 2003 to 2009 sensational judicial bribery scandals rocked Mississippi's legal system. Famed trial lawyers Paul Minor and Richard (Dickie) Scruggs and renowned judge and former prosecutor Bobby DeLaughter proved to be the nexus of these scandals. Seven attorneys and a former state auditor were alleged to have attempted to bribe or to have actually bribed five state judges to rule in favor of Minor and Scruggs in several lawsuits. This is the story of how federal authorities, following up on information provided by a bank examiner and a judge who could not be bribed, toppled Minor, Scruggs, and their enablers in what was exposed as the most significant legal scandal of twenty-first-century Mississippi. James R. Crockett details the convoluted schemes that eventually put three of the judges, six of the attorneys, and the former auditor in federal prison. All of the men involved were successful professionals and three of them, Minor, Scruggs, and fellow attorney Joey Langston, were exceptionally wealthy. The stories involve power, greed, but most of all hubris. The culprits rationalized abominable choices and illicit actions to influence judicial decisions. The crimes came to light in those six years, but some crimes were committed before that. These men put themselves above the law and produced the perfect storm of bribery that ended in disgrace. The tales Crockett relates about these scandals and the actions of Paul Minor and Richard Scruggs are almost unbelievable. Individuals willingly became their minions in power plays designed to distort the very rule of law that most of them had sworn to uphold.