An unofficial cultural ambassador for Cold War America, violinist Isaac Stern toured the world, while shaping public policy from New York and Washington to Jerusalem and Shanghai. His passion for developing young talents—including Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Yo-Yo Ma, and Midori—led him to loan instruments to needy players, broker gigs for Soviet émigrés, and reply in person to inquiring fifth-graders. As the first historian to mine his papers at the Library of Congress, David Schoenbaum traces Stern's 60-year career from his formative years in San Francisco to concurrent careers as an activist and a cultural leader in the Jewish community.