Super K
The Making, Breaking, and Remaking of Henry Kissinger's Legacy
Will be published approx. on 10. November 2026
320 pages
E-Book
978-1-6680-1894-1 (ISBN)
Description
The untold story of how Henry Kissinger spent five decades shaping his legacy?and the institutions that helped him do it.
In the nearly fifty years after he left public office, Henry Kissinger remained one of the most admired?and controversial?figures in American public life. Super K reveals how he manufactured this extraordinary fame. Drawing on previously unseen private correspondence and interviews with journalists and editors he courted and battled, historian Barbara J. Keys exposes the machinery Kissinger used to build and defend his reputation.
From fierce battles over his record in Cambodia and Chile to high-stakes confrontations with television networks and major publishers, Kissinger spent nearly five decades shaping how the world remembered his eight years in power and leveraging those years into continuing influence. In the process, he helped write the playbook for the modern political celebrity.
Super K is not just a portrait of one man's quest to shape history; it is a sweeping account of the media and elite institutions that enabled him, revealing vulnerabilities that still shape public and political life today. Insightful and deeply researched, this is a definitive look at how reputations are manufactured and why they matter.
In the nearly fifty years after he left public office, Henry Kissinger remained one of the most admired?and controversial?figures in American public life. Super K reveals how he manufactured this extraordinary fame. Drawing on previously unseen private correspondence and interviews with journalists and editors he courted and battled, historian Barbara J. Keys exposes the machinery Kissinger used to build and defend his reputation.
From fierce battles over his record in Cambodia and Chile to high-stakes confrontations with television networks and major publishers, Kissinger spent nearly five decades shaping how the world remembered his eight years in power and leveraging those years into continuing influence. In the process, he helped write the playbook for the modern political celebrity.
Super K is not just a portrait of one man's quest to shape history; it is a sweeping account of the media and elite institutions that enabled him, revealing vulnerabilities that still shape public and political life today. Insightful and deeply researched, this is a definitive look at how reputations are manufactured and why they matter.
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Book
approx. 11/2026
Simon & Schuster
€28.50
Not yet published
Person
Barbara Keys is a historian of US foreign policy, diplomacy, and human rights. She is Professor of History at Durham University and received her PhD from Harvard University. The author or editor of several prize-winning books, including Reclaiming American Virtue: The Human Rights Revolution of the 1970s, she is a past president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.
