The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism Book

From Pulitzer Prizeâ??winning journalist and bestselling author Ron Suskind comes a startling look at how America lost its way and at the nationâ??s struggle, day by day, to reclaim the moral authority upon which its survival depends. From the White House to Downing Street, from the fault-line countries of South Asia to the sands of Guantánamo, Suskind offers an astonishing story that connects world leaders to the forces waging todayâ??s shadow wars and to the next generation of global citizens. Tracking down truth and hope within the Beltway and far beyond it, Suskind delivers historic disclosures with this emotionally stirring and strikingly original portrait of the post-9/11 world. In a sweeping, propulsive, and multilayered narrative, The Way of the World investigates how America relinquished the moral leadership it now desperately needs to fight the real threat of our era: a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists. Truth, justice, and accountability become more than mere words in this story. Suskind shows where the most neglected dangers lie in the story of â??The Armageddon Testâ? â??a desperate gamble to send undercover teams into the worldâ??s nuclear black market to frustrate the efforts of terrorists trying to procure weapons-grade uranium. In the end, he finally reveals for the first time the explosive falsehood underlying the Iraq War and the entire Bush presidency. While the public and political realms struggle, The Way of the World simultaneously follows an ensemble of characters in America and abroad who are turning fear and frustration into a desperateâ??and often daringâ??brand of human salvation. They include a striving, twenty-four-year-old Pakistani émigré, a fearless UN refugee commissioner, an Afghan teenager, a Holocaust survivorâ??s son, and Benazir Bhutto, who discovers, days before her death, how sheâ??s been abandoned by the United States at her moment of greatest need. They are all testing American values at a time of peril, and discovering solutionsâ??human solutionsâ??to so much that has gone wrong. For anyone hoping to exercise truly informed consent and begin the process of restoring the values and hopeâ??along with the moral clarity and earned optimismâ??at the heart of the American tradition, The Way of the World is a must-read.