McNamara At War: A New History

Main Point Books, Radnor Memorial Library, and Radnor Historical Society welcome Philip and William Taubman with their new history "McNamara at War," a revelatory portrait of Robert S. McNamara, informed by newly discovered diaries, letters, and interviews with those closest to him.

This event will be in the Winsor Room at Radnor Memorial Library. The event is free, with reservations requested via Eventbrite. Books are for sale in advance via Eventbrite and the store's website, and will be for sale at the event.

About the Book

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.