Legacy of Ashes
Tim Weiner
  • Published: 27 April 2012
  • ISBN: 9780241956236
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 832
  • RRP: $45.00

Legacy of Ashes

The History of the CIA

Formats & editions
EBook
30 Jan 2012
Paperback
27 Apr 2012
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Weiner's explosive account of the CIA reveals the truth about one of the world's most mythic organisations.

All-powerful, brilliant, decisive, ruthlessly effective ... this is the image of the CIA as portrayed in countless films and novels. It is wrong.

This shocking book, based on thousands of declassified documents and interviews with agents at all levels, shows the reality behind the glamorous myth: a blundering, chaotic and dangerously incompetent organization, so ineffective it was nicknamed 'Can't Identify Anything' by Nato forces. In a story of botched coups, missed targets, lost operatives and fatal errors, Tim Weiner shows how the CIA now poses a threat not only to the security of the US, but the world.
  • Published: 27 April 2012
  • ISBN: 9780241956236
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 832
  • RRP: $45.00
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About the author

Tim Weiner

Tim Weiner is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the New York Times where he has reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Sudan, and fifteen other nations. He was based for a decade in Washington, DC, where he covered the CIA and the military - the last topic being the basis for his famous book Blank Check: The Pentagon's Black Budget. His latest book is Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (2007).

Also by Tim Weiner

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Praise for Legacy of Ashes

This extraordinary story reads like tragedy and thriller. Impeccably sourced, utterly absorbing, dazzling and very, very dark

Time Out

This racy history reveals the CIA as a secret service to make Smiley weep and Bond howl in horror

Daily Telegraph

Combines thrilling storytelling with terrifying revelations

Simon Sebag Montefiore, New Statesman, Books of the Year

Weiner's riveting history of the CIA contains dozens of jaw-dropping incidents ... astonishing

Evening Standard, Books of the Year

Timely, immensely readable, and highly critical

Mark Bowden, author of 'Black Hawk Down'

Marvellous ... that every quote is also on the record is a testament to his skill

Steve Coll, author of 'Ghost Wars'

Winner of the National Book Award

Prizes and awards