A powerful indictment of American moral complacency from a writer Barack Obama called âone of my favorite philosophersâ â[Niebuhr] is one of my favorite philosophers. I take away [from his works] the compelling idea that thereâs serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldnât use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away . . . the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard.ââPresident Barack Obama Forged during the tumultuous but triumphant postwar years when America came of age as a world power, The Irony of American History is more relevant now than ever before. Cited by politicians as diverse as Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Niebuhrâs masterpiece on the incongruity between personal ideals and political reality is both an indictment of American moral complacency and a warning against the arrogance of virtue. Impassioned, eloquent, and deeply perceptive, Niebuhrâs wisdom will cause readers to rethink their assumptions about right and wrong, war and peace. âThe supreme American theologian of the twentieth century.ââArthur Schlesinger Jr., New York Times âNiebuhr is important for the left today precisely because he warned about Americaâs tendencyâincluding the leftâs tendencyâto do bad things in the name of idealism. His thought offers a much better understanding of where the Bush administration went wrong in Iraq.ââKevin Mattson, The Good Society â Irony provides the master key to understanding the myths and delusions that underpin American statecraft. . . . The most important book ever written on US foreign policy.ââAndrew J. Bacevich, from the Introduction
