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Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam Kindle Edition

4.7 out of 5 stars 1,085

Due to its large file size, this book may take longer to download

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This extraordinary work of modern history combines powerful narrative thrust, deep scholarly authority, and quiet interpretive confidence.”—Francis Parkman Prize citation

“A balanced, deeply researched history of how, as French colonial rule faltered, a succession of American leaders moved step by step down a road toward full-blown war.”
—Pulitzer Prize citation

“Fredrik Logevall’s excellent book
Choosing War (1999) chronicled the American escalation of the Vietnam War in the early 1960s. With Embers of War, he has written an even more impressive book about the French conflict in Vietnam and the beginning of the American one. . . . It is the most comprehensive history of that time. Logevall, a professor of history at Cornell University, has drawn from many years of previous scholarship as well as his own. And he has produced a powerful portrait of the terrible and futile French war from which Americans learned little as they moved toward their own engagement in Vietnam.”Alan Brinkley, The New York Times Book Review *Editor's Choice*

“Superb . . . penetrating . . .
Embers of War is a product of formidable international research. It is lucidly and comprehensively composed. And it leverages a consistently potent analytical perspective. . . . Outstanding.”—Gordon Goldstein, The Washington Post

“A monumental history . . . a widely researched and eloquently written account of how the U.S. came to be involved in Vietnam . . . certainly the most comprehensive review of this period to date.”
—Wall Street Journal

“The most comprehensive account available of the French Vietnamese war, America’s involvement, and the beginning of the US-directed struggle. . . . [
Embers of War tells] the deeply immoral story of the Vietnam wars convincingly and more fully than any others. Since many of the others, some written over fifty years ago, are excellent, this is a considerable achievement.”—Jonathan Mirsky, New York Review of Books

“Magisterial.”
—Foreign Affairs

“The definitive history of the critical formative period from 1940 to 1960 [in Vietnam]. . . . lucid and vivid . . . As American involvement escalated, Bernard Fall, the highly respected scholar-journalist of Vietnam’s wars, wrote that Americans were ‘dreaming different dreams than the French but walking in the same footsteps.’ Fredrik Logevall brilliantly explains that legacy.”
—Gary R. Hess, San Francisco Chronicle

Embers of War is simply an essential work for those seeking to understand the worst foreign-policy adventure in American history. . . . Even though readers know how the story ends—as with “The Iliad”—they will be as riveted by the tale as if they were hearing it for the first time.”—The Christian Science Monitor

“A remarkable new history . . . Logevall skillfully explains everything that led up to Vietnam’s fatal partition in 1954 . . . [and] peppers the grand sweep of his book with vignettes of remarkable characters, wise and foolish.”
—The Economist

About the Author

Fredrik Logevall is Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs and professor of history at Harvard University. A specialist on U.S. foreign relations history and modern international history, he is the author or editor of nine books, most recently Embers of War, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Francis Parkman Prize.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B007EED4P8
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House (August 21, 2012)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 21, 2012
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 14200 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 1100 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 1,085

About the author

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Fredrik Logevall
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Fredrik Logevall is Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs and Professor of History at Harvard University. He is the author or editor of ten books, most recently JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century (Random House, 2020). His book Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam (Random House, 2012), won the Pulitzer Prize for History as well as the Francis Parkman Prize, the Arthur Ross Award, and other prizes. Logevall's essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The London Review of Books, and Foreign Affairs, among other publications. A native of Stockholm, Sweden, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
1,085 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2012
146 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2015
15 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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P-A
5.0 out of 5 stars Very, very impressive
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 28, 2022
NITIN ARORA
5.0 out of 5 stars Vietnam Struggle! Worthy
Reviewed in India on January 6, 2021
ぼくでぃらん
5.0 out of 5 stars 圧倒されました
Reviewed in Japan on June 29, 2018
One person found this helpful
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Christopher Powell, PhD
5.0 out of 5 stars Shaping the Present, Repeating the Past
Reviewed in Canada on December 5, 2012
6 people found this helpful
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cherstinne
5.0 out of 5 stars endlessly fascinating
Reviewed in France on September 16, 2013
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