Books by William Taubman

McNamara at War: A New History, by Philip Taubman and William Taubman

A revelatory portrait of Robert S. McNamara, informed by newly discovered diaries, letters, and interviews with those closest to him.

Robert S. McNamara was widely considered to be one of the most brilliant men of his generation. He was an invaluable ally of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson as U.S. secretary of defense, and he had a deeply moving relationship with Jackie Kennedy. But to the country, McNamara was the leading advocate for American escalation in Vietnam. He strongly advised Johnson to deploy hundreds of thousands of American ground troops, just weeks before concluding that the war was unwinnable, and for the next two and a half years, McNamara failed to urge Johnson to cut his losses and withdraw.

McNamara at War examines McNamara’s life of intense personal contradictions, following his childhood, his career as a young faculty member at Harvard Business School, and his World War II service, to his leadership of the Ford Motor Company and the World Bank. Philip and William Taubman had access to materials previously unavailable to McNamara biographers, including Jacqueline Kennedy’s warm letters to McNamara during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and beyond; family correspondence dating back to McNamara’s service in World War II; and a secret diary maintained by McNamara’s top Vietnam policy aide. What emerges is the comprehensive story of the infamous former leader of the Pentagon: riven by melancholy, guilt, zealous loyalty, and a profound inability to admit his flawed thinking about Vietnam before it was too late. McNamara at War is a portrait of a man at war with himself—with a grave influence on the history of the United States and the world.

“At last, we have the man in full. McNamara at War illuminates the high-octane ambition and ability that propelled Robert McNamara to the pinnacles of power in both the private and political realms. With penetrating insight and capacious sensitivity, the authors give us nothing less than McNamara Agonistes: a vivid portrait of this uncommonly brilliant and uncommonly complex soul tormented by trials of intelligence, will, morality, and loyalty. A compelling, memorable read. It reveals much about the waging of the Vietnam War as well as the often-baffling labyrinths of human nature.” —David Kennedy, author of Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945

“Excellent and probing about one of the central figures of the Vietnam War.” —Bob Woodward, author of War

“The Taubmans have done a brilliant job of putting McNamara into vitally important context; showing the complexities of his relationships and the challenges they posed to his aspirations. McNamara was trapped by his sense of duty and his own ambivalence regarding his choices. But he was honest about this pain. As his friend, I will remember him with compassion and an appreciation for the loneliness he felt as he grappled with what he had done, and what he had hoped he could do.” —Susan Eisenhower, author of How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower’s Biggest Decisions

Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.

Hardcover: 512 pages, September 2025; ISBN: 978-1-324-00716-6

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Gorbachev: His Life and Times

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction

“Essential reading for the twenty-first [century].” —Radhika Jones, The New York Times Book Review

When Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union in 1985, the USSR. was one of the world’s two superpowers. By 1989, his liberal policies of perestroika and glasnost had permanently transformed Soviet Communism, and had made enemies of radicals on the right and left. By 1990 he, more than anyone else, had ended the Cold War, and in 1991, after barely escaping from a coup attempt, he unintentionally presided over the collapse of the Soviet Union he had tried to save. In the first comprehensive biography of the final Soviet leader, William Taubman shows how a peasant boy became the Soviet system’s gravedigger, how he clambered to the top of a system designed to keep people like him down, how he found common ground with America’s arch-conservative president Ronald Reagan, and how he permitted the USSR and its East European empire to break apart without using force to preserve them. Throughout, Taubman portrays the many sides of Gorbachev’s unique character that, by Gorbachev’s own admission, make him “difficult to understand.” Was he in fact a truly great leader, or was he brought low in the end by his own shortcomings, as well as by the unyielding forces he faced?

Drawing on interviews with Gorbachev himself, transcripts and documents from the Russian archives, and interviews with Kremlin aides and adversaries, as well as foreign leaders, Taubman’s intensely personal portrait extends to Gorbachev’s remarkable marriage to a woman he deeply loved, and to the family that they raised together. Nuanced and poignant, yet unsparing and honest, this sweeping account has all the amplitude of a great Russian novel.

“Masterly….[This] richly layered portrait….will surely stand as the definitive English-language chronicle of this most intriguing figure for many years to come.“ —Peter Baker, New York Times Book Review

“Taubman… has written by far the best biographies of both [Khrushchev and Gorbachev]…. He… tells a superbly researched story of a politician of such decency as to seem, in our more pessimistic, darker moment, almost beyond imagining.” —The New Yorker

“The research is vast; the tracking down of published and unpublished sources is tireless. The willingness of sometimes reluctant individuals to talk – family, old staffers, half-forgotten comrades from the early days – represents many triumphs of tact and patience.“ —Neal Ascherson, London Review of Books

For more of the many plaudits for this book, see More on Gorbachev: His Life and Times.

Publisher: W.W.Norton & Co.

Hardcover: 880 pages, 2017; ISBN: 978-0-393-64701-3

Paperback: 880 pages, 2018; ISBN: 978-0-393-35620-5

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Khrushchev: The Man and His Era

Winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, this is the definitive biography of the mercurial Soviet leader who succeeded and denounced Stalin. Nikita Khrushchev was one of the most complex and important political figures of the twentieth century. Ruler of the Soviet Union during the first decade after Stalin’s death, Khrushchev left a contradictory stamp on his country and on the world. His life and career mirror the Soviet experience: revolution, civil war, famine, collectivization, industrialization, terror, world war, cold war, Stalinism, post-Stalinism. Complicit in terrible Stalinist crimes, Khrushchev nevertheless retained his humanity: his daring attempt to reform communism prepared the ground for its eventual collapse; and his awkward efforts to ease the cold war triggered its most dangerous crises.

This is the first comprehensive biography of Khrushchev and the first of any Soviet leader to reflect the full range of sources that have become available since the USSR collapsed. Combining a page-turning historical narrative with penetrating political and psychological analysis, this book brims with the life and excitement of a man whose story personified his era.

The book is still in print in hardback, paperback and e-editions; a new hardback edition will be issued by the book’s British publisher in October 2017.

“Thanks to Taubman, one of the most important figures of the 20th century finally has the biography he deserves.”—Strobe Talbott, Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Masterful and monumental…one should salute its author for a wonderful achievement.”—Robert G. Kaiser, Washington Post

“A portrait unlikely to be surpassed any time soon in either richness or complexity….shines with mastery and authority.”—Leon Aron, New York Times Book Review

Publisher: W.W.Norton & Co.

Hardcover: 768 pages, 2003; ISBN: 978-0393051445

Paperback: 896 pages, 2004; ISBN: 978-0393324846

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Moscow Spring, by William and Jane Taubman

Now out of print, but well worth hunting for in secondhand copies, for those curious about the early period of Gorbachev’s reforms as viewed by two experts with plenty of firsthand observation. As R.H. Johnston said in a review in Library Journal, “The authors see a revolution in the making as momentous as that of 1917. The intoxicating excitement of their meetings with Moscow intellectuals and others leaps off the page.”

Publisher: Summit Books

Hardcover: 301 pages, March 1989; ISBN: 978-0671677312

Paperback: 320 pages, Jan. 1990; ISBN: 978-0671700584

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The View from Lenin Hills

Chronicles the period at the beginning of the author’s academic career, shortly after Khrushchev’s removal from office. WorldCat called the book “an eye-opening report on Russian youth today, a vital and restless new generation that openly criticizes Communist leaders and propaganda, and is disenchanted with the twisting and turning of the Party line. While the youth dares to speak out, much remains the same in Russia, as Mr. Taubman discovered when he was trailed by the secret police and denied access to certain essential research facilities. How he and his young Soviet friends coped with these harassments enlivens this account with humor, as well as with suspense.”

Publisher: Coward-McCann

Paperback: 1967; ASIN: B007SZ1YA0