Our Man

Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century

By: George Packer

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Prize for Biography

Winner of the 2019 Hitchens Prize

"Portrays Holbrooke in all of his endearing and exasperating self-willed glory.... Both a sweeping diplomatic history and a Shakespearean tragicomedy.... If you could read one book to comprehend American's foreign policy and its quixotic forays into quicksands over the past 50 years, this would be it." (Walter Isaacson, The New York Times Book Review)

"By the end of the second page, maybe the third, you will be hooked.... There never was a diplomat-activist quite like [Holbrooke], and there seldom has been a book quite like this - sweeping and sentimental, beguiling and brutal, catty and critical, much like the man himself." (David M. Shribman, The Boston Globe)

Richard Holbrooke was brilliant, utterly self-absorbed, and possessed of almost inhuman energy and appetites. Admired and detested, he was the force behind the Dayton Accords that ended the Balkan wars, America's greatest diplomatic achievement in the post-Cold War era. His power lay in an utter belief in himself and his idea of a muscular, generous foreign policy.

From his days as a young adviser in Vietnam to his last efforts to end the war in Afghanistan, Holbrooke embodied the postwar American impulse to take the lead on the global stage. But his sharp elbows and tireless self-promotion ensured that he never rose to the highest levels in government that he so desperately coveted. His story is thus the story of America during its era of supremacy: Its strength, drive, and sense of possibility, as well as its penchant for overreach and heedless self-confidence.

In Our Man, drawn from Holbrooke's diaries and papers, we are given a nonfiction narrative that is both intimate and epic in its revelatory portrait of this extraordinary and deeply flawed man and the elite spheres of society and government he inhabited.

©2019 George Packer (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"It is impossible to read George Packer’s new biography of Richard Holbrooke without a piercing sense of melancholy, not only that a man so supremely alive should be dead, but also because such people - Our Man, in Packer’s title, the incarnation of vanished glory, imperial hubris, exceptional Americanism - no longer walk the earth.... Extraordinary." (James Traub, Foreign Policy)

"This book is a real accomplishment; it’s hands down the best biography I have read this year.... Deeply researched and reported.... Sure to win a prize (or two or three) in the 2019 literary-awards sweepstakes." (Adam B. Kushner, Philadelphia Inquirer)

"This is the kind of biography (massive, detailed) by the kind of author (respected, experienced) reserved for great books on great men.... Packer make[s] a case for Holbrooke’s place in the pantheon, showing that there was real idealism and skill buried beneath the layers of self-regard." (Mary Ann Gwin, The Seattle Times)

Haunting

I didn’t know much about Holbrooke, I’m too young to have known of him in Vietnam, and while I recall hearing about him frequently on the news about Bosnia and Pakistan after that, I never really understood who he was. That’s kind of the story the book and of Holbrooke, a man who wanted greatness, but fell short. After listening to this book, I feel that those blanks in my education have been corrected.

Packer is harsh in some ways, making it difficult to understand how Holbrooke did as well as he did, and yet it’s a sympathetic portrait too.

In the end it left me unsettled; many of us fail to achieve all our goals, but few have goals as lofty as Holbrooke. I’m not sure if that says more about him, or the rest of us.

Breathlessly, unrelentingly good.

This worked on so many levels: an intimate portrait of a man; an Insider's view of the making of American foreign policy. Highly recommended.

Lived thru it

What a great book. Grew up with all the events but now see deeper Great work George

Late 20th Century History

Richard Holbrooke was a man of talent and aspirations. He served his country and the world well. A human with both strengths and weaknesses. Well written and narrated.

Stupendous...

...and beautifully written by George Packer, who addresses his readers in the first person, as though sitting with us, sipping warming libations in deep library chairs before a comfy fire in an elegant lodge, The scores of photos helped tell the story, and Joe Barrett's raspy, journalistic narration navigated briskly and generally accurately through many a tricky name, foreign term, and place.

This is a story of a brilliant, cringe-worthily ambitious man who craved a greatness that would earn his place in history history. Warts and all. I'd say, on sum, the warts tip the scale. In Packer's admiring, then cringing, telling, Holbrooke was his own worst enemy. He made the Dayton Accords happen, which was seen as a prodigious achievement in 1995. But this luster, and Holbrooke's, faded quickly, and Holbrooke's own domineering, bigger-than-life, non-introspective personality blocked--like a high, thick cinderblock wall--the way to his life's ambition, the 7th Floor Secretary's Suite at the Department of State.

In sum, a ripping yarn, particularly for Boomer national security/foreign policy wonks of my age who lived, mostly vicariously via news media but sometimes in our own work, through the important public moments of Richard Holbrooke's life, work, and struggle for greatness.

Riveting Story!

Never expected such a riveting and enthralling book on modern US foreign policy. Yes Holbrooke's “bull in china shop” personality and career warrants such an interesting book though George Packer goes the extra mile in covering many aspects of US foreign policy since the Vietnam War (when Holbrooke started his career) up to the Obama administration in such a way that you just can’t stop listening / reading. Fascinating to learn about Holbrooke’s life in all the nitty-gritty details. For a man that accomplished so much in diplomacy, it's amazing to see how undiplomatic he was throughout his life. Not a surprise that he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize, though he definitely deserved it. Incredible read!

Fabulous book

Best portrait of diplomacy I’ve ever read.
Through one mans extraordinary life we get much of the back story from Vietnam Nam to Afghanistan.

Great Book, Poor Performance

The book is fascinating. The author effortlessly weaves the personal story of Holbrooke with the larger story of US Foreign Policy in the latter half of the 20th Century. However, the narrator is tough to get past. The combination a his hoarse voice, disjointed inflections, and seemingly random emphasis really takes you out of what is a rich story(also he does weird voices for in text quotes). If you can tolerate this narrator I highly recommend this audiobook.

Great

A very good story that arches ambition and achievement and failure. Worth a read anytime.

He was great & obnoxiously insisted you knew it too. (and he was right)

it's hard to write about complex characters. Packer spent extra care painting the history of joining to Foreign Service to his moments, thoughts, loves, confusion, insights, writing, his humanitarianism, during his time in Vietnam. Most importantly, his early onset health neglect in the name of self sacrifice. It makes everyyhing else that happens including his desth- make sense. #RIP