William J. Lederer

Eugene Burdick

A piercing exposé of American incompetence and corruption in Southeast Asia, The Ugly American captivated the nation when it was first published in 1958. The book introduces readers to an unlikely hero in the titular "ugly American"--and to the ignorant politicians and arrogant ambassadors who ignore his empathetic and commonsense advice. In linked stories and vignettes set in the fictional nation of Sarkhan, William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick draw an incisive portrait of American foreign policy gone dangerously wrong--and how it might be fixed. Eerily relevant sixty years after its initial publication, The Ugly American reminds us that "today, as the battle for hearts and minds has shifted to the Middle East, we still can't speak Sarkhanese" (New York Times).

The Ugly American

The ineffectual Ambassador is just one of the handicaps facing the Americans as Southeast Asia becomes increasingly involved with Communism

Fail-safe

The Ninth Wave, published in 1956, follows a political campaign complete with then cutting-edge innovations of opinion polling, computers and the use of campaign consultants. Though we now know -- even in a world of Facebook and Obama -- that data and numbers can't quite predict and control political outcomes in the way the book lays out, the world has turned out close enough to Burdick's picture of the future to make The Ninth Wave a prescient and still relevant story, and one that should be loved by people who are into the mechanics of politics. (Mark Pack)

The Ninth Wave

Nina and her friends in the French Resistance help an American pilot, shot down over Brittany in World War II, to freedom. Rodney continues to fly, but Nina is picked up by the Nazis and spends the next few years in a German concentration camp. They meet up again in post-war Paris.

Eugene Burdick

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