Table of Contents:
  • Success story. The Cuban missile crisis of 1962
  • A second success. The Social Security reform of 1983
  • Unreasoning from analogies. Defending South Korea in 1950 ; The swine flu scare of 1976
  • The seducer and the kid next door. The Mayaguez rescue of 1975 ; Carter's "hundred days" in 1977
  • Dodging bothersome analogues. Americanizing the Vietnam War in 1965
  • Inspecting issue history. The Soviet brigade in Cuba, 1979 ; Starting Social Security in 1935 ; The Skybolt affair of 1962
  • Finding history that fits. The arms control initiative of 1977
  • Probing presumptions. The Bay of Pigs in 1961
  • Placing strangers. Johnson's advisers on Vietnam, 1965 ; "Madam Secretary" v. Mary Anderson, 1933
  • Placing across barriers. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X ; Helmut Schmidt v. Jimmy Carter ; Harold Macmillan on Skybolt
  • Noticing patterns. Leonid Brezhnev and colleagues ; Henry M. Jackson in the Senate ; Marxism-Leninism and Soviet economics ; American images of economic growth ; LBJ placing people
  • Placing organizations. The Central Intelligence Agency ; The Center for Disease Control ; The Social Security Administration ; The Office of Planning and Evaluation
  • What to do and how : a summary. Thucydides on the Athenians ; Mini-methods in staff work
  • Seeing time as a stream. George C. Marshall ; Secession, 1860-61 ; The Great Crash.