Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
With revelations that captured headlines nationwide, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Tim Weiner exposes the truth about the CIA—revealing how nearly every director left the agency worse than they found it, and how these repeated failures have endangered U.S. national security.

"Essential reading for anyone interested in the CIA or U.S. intelligence since World War II." — The Washington Post

Named one of the Best Nonfiction Books of the Century by Kirkus Reviews

For decades, the CIA has upheld a powerful image, despite a long record of mistakes—often hidden in classified files. Its mission was to understand the world. When it failed, it tried to reshape it. As President Eisenhower once said, its legacy is one of "ashes."

In Legacy of Ashes, Tim Weiner delivers the authoritative history of the CIA, based on over 50,000 documents—most from the CIA's own archives—and hundreds of interviews with agency veterans, including ten former Directors of Central Intelligence. The book traces the CIA’s journey from its founding after World War II, through the Cold War and the war on terror, to its near breakdown following 9/11.

This is the untold story of the CIA: how eleven U.S. presidents and three generations of officers failed to grasp global realities, why almost every CIA leader left behind a weakened agency, and how these ongoing failures have seriously threatened America’s security.