"Absorbing, a credible and damning indictment of American intelligence policy." Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A timely, immensely readable, and highly critical history of the CIA, culminating with the most recent catastrophic failures in Iraq."Mark Bowden, author of Blackhawk Down

"Legacy of Ashes, like all first-rate histories, is not only richly informative but provocative and insightful."Ted Gup, author of The Book of Honor and Nation of Secrets

This is the book the CIA does not want you to read. For the last sixty years, the CIA has maintained a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, never disclosing its blunders to the American public. It spun its own truth to the nation while reality lay buried in classified archives. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Tim Weiner offers a stunning indictment of the CIA, a deeply flawed organization that has never deserved America's confidence. Legacy of Ashes is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA. Everything is on the record. There are no anonymous sources, no blind quotations. With shocking revelations that will make headlines, Tim Weiner gets at the truth and tells how the CIA's failures have profoundly jeopardized our national security.