Who recommended The World as It Is?

7 people have recommended The World as It Is in the interviews, articles and reading lists we track, including Barack Obama, Tommy Vietor, Kal Penn and Gina Din. Each name links to their full reading list.

Is The World as It Is worth reading?

7 people we track recommend it. It is best for: a congressional staffer preparing briefing notes who needs narrative color on how White House messaging and foreign-policy choices interact — useful for turning dry policy points into memorable anecdotes; a grad student in international relations drafting case-study chapters and wanting firsthand timelines and decision vignettes to supplement academic sources; a communications professional at a nonprofit trying to balance aspirational rhetoric with pragmatic constraints and looking for concrete examples of speechcraft meeting policy reality. It may not suit: you'll likely put it down when the book shifts into long operational timelines, repetitive defenses, or dense policy blow-by-blow — those middle stretches bog down the pace; annoying if you prefer detached, analytical accounts: frequent personal justification and episode-level storytelling can feel partial and conversational rather than dispassionate; not for readers seeking practical instructions or exercises on policymaking or negotiation — the book contains anecdotes and reflections but no hands-on how-to guidance.

What books are like The World as It Is?

Readers of The World as It Is also turn to The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, Out of Control and The Bully Pulpit, based on the lists and recommenders these books share.

The World as It Is by Ben Rhodes: Recommended by 7 People

Name: The World as It Is
Author: Ben Rhodes

From one of Barack Obama's most trusted aides comes a revelatory behindthescenes account of his presidencyand how idealism can confront harsh reality and still survive.For nearly ten years, Ben Rhodes saw almost everything that happened at the center of the Obama administrationfirst as a speechwriter, then as deputy national security advisor,...