A candid memoir by a former White House foreign policy adviser that recounts his experience shaping and defending the Obama administration’s diplomatic efforts — from the Iran nuclear deal and the Cuba thaw to interventions in Libya and the complex responses to Syria and Russia — offering behind-the-scenes accounts of policy debates, strategy, and presidential decision-making. It blends detailed storytelling of negotiations and crises with reflections on the challenges of diplomacy, the limits of power, and the consequences of choices made, while chronicling the team’s efforts to communicate American values and interests. The narrative also confronts the administration’s mistakes and the political currents that culminated in a populist backlash, arguing for the importance of principled, pragmatic engagement in a turbulent world.

A concise political biography that traces the rise of a Hollywood actor to a transformative president, examining his governing philosophy, leadership style, and key policy battles—from tax cuts and deregulation to Cold War strategy and the Iran-Contra scandal—while assessing his strengths as a communicator and the mixed legacy of economic growth, larger deficits, and a reshaped conservative movement.

A concise narrative of how a newly elected leader confronted the national economic collapse of 1933 by using bold, experimental policies and unprecedented executive action during his first hundred days, reshaping the role of the presidency and restoring public confidence; the book traces the creation and implementation of relief, recovery and reform programs, the political maneuvering and communication strategies that sold them to the public, and the long-term transformation of American government and politics that resulted.