{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307389006?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0307389006","authors":["Tim Weiner"],"book_id":"9780307389008","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/legacy-of-ashes-9780307389008","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780307389008.jpg?v=056442eab3bb5aad","description":"NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • With shocking revelations that made headlines all across the country, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Tim Weiner gets at the truth behind the CIA and uncovers why nearly every CIA director has left the agency in worse shape than he found it, and how these profound failures jeopardize our national security. \" For anyone interested in the CIA or American intelligence since World War II.” — The Washington Post A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century • The precursor to the New York Times bestseller The Mission For years, the CIA has managed to maintain a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, burying its blunders in top-secret archives. Its mission was to know the world. When it did not succeed, it set out to change the world. Its failures have handed us, in the words of President Eisenhower, “a legacy of ashes.” Now Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tim Weiner offers a definitive history of the CIA—and everything is on the record. LEGACY OF ASHES is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA itself, and hundreds of interviews with CIA veterans, including ten Directors of Central Intelligence. It takes the CIA from its creation after World War II, through its battles in the cold war and the war on terror, to its near-collapse after 9/ll. Here is the hidden history of the CIA: why eleven presidents and three generations of CIA officers have been unable to understand the world; why nearly every CIA director has left the agency in worse shape than he found it; and how these failures have profoundly jeopardized our national security.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780307389008","publication_date":"20080520","publisher":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group","slug":"legacy-of-ashes","subtitle":"The History of the CIA","title":"Legacy of Ashes"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS027290","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Intelligence & Espionage","score":0.7601,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS037100","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Cold War History","score":0.7221,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036070","confidence_band":"medium","label":"21st-Century America","score":0.722,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"HIS027290","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Intelligence & Espionage","score":0.7601,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS037100","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Cold War History","score":0.7221,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036070","confidence_band":"medium","label":"21st-Century America","score":0.722,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS027110","confidence_band":"high","label":"U.S. Military History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036000","confidence_band":"high","label":"U.S. History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"POL012000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Security Studies","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Intelligence & Espionage","score":0.7601,"slug":"intelligence-espionage"},{"label":"Cold War History","score":0.7221,"slug":"cold-war-history"},{"label":"21st-Century America","score":0.722,"slug":"21st-century-america"}],"reader_fit":["For readers interested in the CIA or American intelligence since World War II."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Tim Weiner"],"book_id":"9780063270206","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780063270206.jpg?v=44856e0423f4dd86","score":0.8605,"title":"The Mission","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780063270206"},{"authors":["Tim Weiner"],"book_id":"9780812979237","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780812979237.jpg?v=26b68da88a075607","score":0.715,"title":"Enemies","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780812979237"},{"authors":["Charlie English"],"book_id":"9780593447901","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593447901.jpg?v=0e77ec5da6fce7cf","score":0.6885,"title":"The CIA Book Club","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593447901"},{"authors":["J. Michael Waller"],"book_id":"9781684513536","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781684513536.jpg?v=cbaf9d7836ede874","score":0.6831,"title":"Big Intel","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781684513536"},{"authors":["Annie Jacobsen","Hachette Audio"],"book_id":"9780316441421","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780316441421.jpg?v=445afa17b2443df7","score":0.6749,"title":"Surprise, Kill, Vanish","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780316441421"},{"authors":["Toby Harnden"],"book_id":"9780316540971","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780316540971.jpg?v=3001dd38c7f76ec5","score":0.6724,"title":"First Casualty","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780316540971"},{"authors":["Dick Couch","George Galdorisi","Tom Clancy"],"book_id":"9781250026835","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781250026835.jpg?v=894c99ac05334f32","score":0.6723,"title":"Tom Clancy's Op-center: Out of the Ashes","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781250026835"},{"authors":["Ben Macintyre"],"book_id":"9781101904213","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781101904213.jpg?v=5df2372700d39f33","score":0.6648,"title":"The Spy and the Traitor","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781101904213"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:cia history"],"label":"History","score":0.4536,"slug":"history"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:nonfiction books best sellers"],"label":"Best","score":0.1119,"slug":"best"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:political history books"],"label":"Political","score":0.0493,"slug":"political"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: CIA history, Intelligence failures, National security.","Themes: History, Political.","Reading lane: Intelligence & Espionage and Cold War History."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.96,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["For readers interested in the CIA or American intelligence since World War II."],"themes":["CIA history","Intelligence failures","National security"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":15537,"goodreads_reviews_count":1550,"quality_score":0.9586}}