Brilliant, utterly self-absorbed, and possessed of almost inhuman energy and appetites, Richard Holbrooke was the force behind the Dayton Accords that ended the Balkan wars, America's greatest diplomatic achievement in the post-Cold War era. Drawing from Holbrooke's diaries and papers, the author of The Unwinding offers a rounded portrait of a consummate diplomat whose ambitious self-promotion ensured that he never rose to the highest levels in government that he so desperately coveted. This Pulitzer Prize finalist is also the story of America during its era of supremacy: its strength, drive, and sense of possibility, as well as its penchant for overreach.