Further praise for Power and the Idealists

“Berman’s thoughtful book is a valuable history lesson, especially for those too young to remember much about the tumultuous 1960s or ’70s. He draws the curtain back on the era of the ‘New Left,’ a time when capitalism and American power were considered the chief culprits for the world’s woes and when a global peasant revolution seemed not merely possible but something that college students could help spark. But what makes this book more than merely a collection of reminiscences of intellectual arguments from the glory days . . . is that many of these activists have assumed positions of influence in Europe. . . . Berman’s most important contribution is to show how these leaders remain influenced by their old debates, especially about when and how military force should be used. . . . Illuminating.”

—Derek Chollet, Washington Post Book World

“Remarkable. . . . Lucid. . . . If anyone can put this dispute into its historical context, it’s Berman. He is not only an alumnus of the rebellion; he is the keeper of its yearbook and its funeral director. In this free-standing sequel to his superb A Tale of Two Utopias, he revisits the European graduating class of Rebellion High.”

—Johann Hari, New York Times Book Review

“[An] important book for liberal internationalists . . . of critical significance for international affairs. Berman’s book is, indirectly, the story of his own intellectual journey from left-wing activist to liberal interventionist: political history as picaresque tale.”

—Peter Ross Range,
Democratic Leadership Council’s Blueprint

“An extraordinarily important book on the generation of 1968 and its fortunes. We were all united by Che Guevara’s conviction that as long as the world was as it was, none of us wanted to die in bed. We became divided by the conviction of some of us (including me) that the path of the legendary Che was a road to nowhere.”

—Adam Michnik, editor in chief,
Gazeta Wyborcza (Warsaw)

“Not even Paul Berman’s enemies would accuse him of ducking a fight. If you haven’t read him yet, you have missed the bracing experience of confronting the most fluent New York intellectual writing today. Power and the Idealists is a follow-up to his A Tale of Two Utopias. But whereas the first book was a generally optimistic account of how the 1960s generation had broken restraints on human sexuality and undermined the apparently unending dictatorship of the Soviet empire, the sequel is far darker.”

—Nick Cohen, New Statesman (London)

“Paul Berman’s latest book is remarkable. It is partly a collective biography, partly a work of contemporary history, and partly a political essay and argument about what has happened to the radical left over the past 30 years. It examines political and ethical issues of the utmost seriousness and challenges all of us on the left at the deepest level. . . . It is also, one has to say, an extraordinarily well-written book, and hard to put down once you have started.”

—Philip Spencer, Democratiya.com

“Power and the Idealists is the work of an extraordinary writer.”

—Benjamin Kerstein, Azure (Jerusalem)

“An impassioned story of the revolutionary idealism of thirty years ago, and of its transfer, in some cases, to positions of power.”

—Christian Rocca, Il Foglio (Italy)

“The sharpest chronicler of contemporary intellectual history tells the story of the illusions and crimes, the dreams and the myopia that defined this generation. Ideals and nightmares, debates and dogmas, rebellions and servilities. . . . You can quarrel with his argument. What is undeniable is that his work is one of the most lucid, valiant and provocative examinations of our intellectual pulse.”

—Jesús Silva-Herzog Márquez,

La Reforma (Mexico City)

“Personal testimony but also an effort to give coherence to a succession of sometimes confused events, this book offers a preciously valuable reflection on one of the major political phenomena of these last thirty years.”

—Eric Aeschimann, Libération (Paris)

“An interesting, well-written and stirring book.”

—Trouw (Amersterdam)

“The book is not about the German foreign minister from 1998 to 2005, but is rather a collective portrait of a generation of left-wing idealists. . . . Berman uses a wide array of sources to draw a fascinating and convincing picture of these idealists. He relies on speeches, debates, articles and books, and carefully notes what these ’68ers said or did not say; he considers how they dealt with crises in politics and their own political lives; he examines how far they engaged in domestic politics, in revolutionary activities, in humanitarian projects. And he finds differences between all of them, but notes their common belief in morally justified actions. . . . Berman’s book is thus the story of a kind of alternative elite, written with sympathy and distance. Probably this generational project—if it was one—has not yet come to an end. And its achievements in national cultures as well as in the international realm should not be underrated.”

—Jost Dülffer, professor of modern history,
University of Cologne (Germany)