Concept and Controversy

The noted economist and former National Security Advisor shares lessons learned from decades of national policymaking in this insightful memoir.

A trusted advisor to Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson and one of America's leading professors of economic history, W. W. Rostow helped shape the intellectual debate and governmental policies on major economic, political, and military issues from World War II to the dawn of the twenty-first century. In this thought-provoking memoir, Rostow discusses his analysis of—and involvement with—eleven key policy problems. In the process, he demonstrates how ideas flow into concrete action and how actions taken or not taken in the short term actually determine the long run that we call "the future.”

Rostow examines such varied issues as using airpower in 1940s Europe; early attempts to end the Cold War; the economic revival of Korea; attempts to control inflation in the 1960s; the Vietnam War; and the challenges posed by declining population in the twenty-first century. In discussing these and other issues, Rostow builds a compelling case for including long-term forces in the making of current policy. He concludes his memoir with provocative reflections on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and on how individual actors shape history.