The World: A Brief Introduction. By Richard Haass. Penguin Press. May 2020. ISBN: 9780399562396. 400 pages. Paperback, $18.00.

Richard Haass’s latest book, The World: A Brief Introduction, is ambitious, and largely successful. The author’s purpose is to “provide the basics of what you [the reader] need to know about the world, to make you more globally literate” (xvii). Central to the book’s success are its organizing structure and principles, the author’s vast foreign policy experience (and the perspective it lends), his lucid writing style, and, most importantly, his discipline in deciding what to include and what to leave out.