Conversations with Power - by Brian Michael Till (Paperback)

About the Book

"Fresh out of college and just beginning his work as a syndicated columnist and a researcher at the New America Foundation, Brian Till set out to interview the former world leaders he most admired. He hardly expected to get his foot in the door--much less to have revelatory, insightful conversations with so many of them. Here, he distills their collective wisdom into key lessons for aspiring leaders of the future, including the best ways to handle opposition, public opinion, and the information revolution. With a stunning list of interviewees including Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Ehud Barak, and Vaclav Havel, and Nobel Laureates Mikhail Gorbachev, Pervez Musharraf, FW de Klerk, and Martti Ahtisaari, among many others, these conversations provide an illuminating, entertaining, and uplifting reminder of what is possible when great leaders inspire and the public is engaged"--

Book Synopsis

Fresh out of college, and frustrated with own generation's political apathy, Brian Till set out to interview the former world leaders he most admired. To his surprise, they were eager to talk, and he soon found himself discussing everything from energy to terrorism to nuclear disarmament with the greatest leaders of the last twenty-five years. Here, he distills what they learned in office, their predictions for the future, and their advice for the leaders of tomorrow. Including interviews with:

*Bill Clinton

*Gro Bruntland

*Jimmy Carter

*Fernando Henrique Cardoso

*Ehud Barak

*Vaclav Havel

*Mikhail Gorbachev

*Pervez Musharraf

*F.W. de Klerk

*Ricardo Lagos

*Helmut Schmidt

*Goh Chok Tong

*Paul Keating

Review Quotes

"This is a collection full of voices that have not been heard enough in America, and the world. Brian Till has spent quality time with some of the most innovative and significant officials of the past few decades, and their experiences and insights are a delight to read, as well as provide an important series of history lessons." --Seymour M. Hersh

"Conversations with Power reflects one young man's quest for knowledge and reassurance from a fascinating array of past leaders. The result is not only a revealing set of lessons about the possibilities and limitations of power; it is also a challenge to a new generation to take the future into its own hands." --Madeleine K. Albright, Former U.S. Secretary of State

"This is a marvelous collection. Brian Till has journeyed around the world talking to leaders of all sorts of government about how they got to the top, what they did there, what worked, what did not. His book gives valuable insights into the secrets of power - and how the powerful see the world today." --William Shawcross, author of Deliver Us From Evil

"An astonishing range of knowledge is on display here - both in world leaders giving context to their rule, and in the piercing, precise questions Till uses to gain access to the answers...as entertaining as any thriller you'll see this year." --Stephen Gaghan, Academy Award-winning writer of Traffic and writer/director of Syriana.

About the Author

Brian Michael Till is a Research Fellow at the New America Foundation and a correspondent for The Atlantic. His columns have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, The Las Vegas Sun, the Los Angeles Daily News, Newsday, The Oregonian, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the St. Petersburg Times. He has been a guest on NPR's Talk of the Nation and has worked with Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont and the Treatment Action Campaign in Cape Town, South Africa. He lives in Washington, D.C.