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The End of the Cold War, 1985-1991 / Robert Service.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : PublicAffairs, 2015Description: xxii, 643 pages : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781610394994 (HC)
  • 1610394992 (HC)
  • 9781610395007 (EB)
  • 161039500X (EB)
Subject(s):
Contents:
Ronald Reagan -- Plans for Armageddon -- The Reaganauts -- The American challenge -- Symptoms recognized, cures rejected -- Cracks in the ice : Eastern Europe -- The Soviet quarantine -- NATO and its friends -- World communism and the peace movement -- In the Soviet waiting room -- Mikhail Gorbachev -- The Moscow reform team -- One foot on the accelerator -- To Geneva -- Presenting the Soviet package -- American rejection -- The stalled interaction -- The Strategic Defense Initiative -- The lost summer -- Summit in Reykjavik -- The month of muffled drums -- The Soviet package untied -- The big four -- Getting to know the enemy -- Sticking points -- Grinding out the treaty -- Calls to Western Europe -- Eastern Europe : perplexity and protest -- The leaving of Afghanistan -- Spokes in the wheel -- Reagan's window of departure -- The fifth man -- The other continent : Asia -- Epitaph for world communism -- Revolution in Eastern Europe -- The Malta Summit -- Redrawing the map of Europe -- The new Germany -- Baltic triangle -- The third man breaks loose -- A new world order? -- Endings -- Postscript.
Summary: "A British historian and author investigates the final years of the Cold War from both sides of the Iron Curtain, discussing the relationship between Reagan and Gorbachev whose unprecedented, historic cooperation worked against the odds to end the arms race,"--NoveList.Summary: On 26 December 1991, the hammer-and-sickle flag was lowered over the Kremlin for the last time. Just six years earlier, when Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and chose Eduard Shevardnadze as his foreign minister, the Cold War had seemed like a permanent fixture in world politics. Until its denouement, no Western or Soviet politician foresaw that the standoff between the two superpowers--after decades of struggle over every aspect of security, politics, economics, and ideas--would end within the lifetime of the current generation. Nor was it at all obvious that the Soviet political leadership would undertake a huge internal reform of the USSR, or that the threat of a nuclear Armageddon could be peacefully wound down. Drawing on pioneering archival research, Robert Service's investigation of the final years of the Cold War pinpoints the extraordinary relationships between Ronald Reagan, Gorbachev, George Shultz, and Shevardnadze, who found ways to cooperate during times of exceptional change around the world.--Adapted from book jacket.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 909.828 S491 Available 33111008149607
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

On 26 December, 1991, the hammer-and-sickle flag was lowered over the Kremlin for the last time. Yet, just six years earlier, when Mikhail Gorbachëv became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and chose Eduard Shevardnadze as his foreign minister, the Cold War seemed like a permanent fixture in world politics. Until its denouement, no Western or Soviet politician foresaw that the standoff between the two superpowers--after decades of struggle over every aspect of security, politics, economics, and ideas--would end within the lifetime of the current generation. Nor was it at all obvious that that the Soviet political leadership would undertake a huge internal reform of the USSR, or that the threat of a nuclear Armageddon could or would be peacefully wound down.

Drawing on pioneering archival research, Robert Service's gripping investigation of the final years of the Cold War pinpoints the extraordinary relationships between Ronald Reagan, Gorbachëv, George Shultz, and Shevardnadze, who found ways to cooperate during times of exceptional change around the world. A story of American pressure and Soviet long-term decline and overstretch, The End of the Cold War: 1985-1991 shows how a small but skillful group of statesmen grew determined to end the Cold War on their watch and transformed the global political landscape irreversibly.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 501-518) and index.

Ronald Reagan -- Plans for Armageddon -- The Reaganauts -- The American challenge -- Symptoms recognized, cures rejected -- Cracks in the ice : Eastern Europe -- The Soviet quarantine -- NATO and its friends -- World communism and the peace movement -- In the Soviet waiting room -- Mikhail Gorbachev -- The Moscow reform team -- One foot on the accelerator -- To Geneva -- Presenting the Soviet package -- American rejection -- The stalled interaction -- The Strategic Defense Initiative -- The lost summer -- Summit in Reykjavik -- The month of muffled drums -- The Soviet package untied -- The big four -- Getting to know the enemy -- Sticking points -- Grinding out the treaty -- Calls to Western Europe -- Eastern Europe : perplexity and protest -- The leaving of Afghanistan -- Spokes in the wheel -- Reagan's window of departure -- The fifth man -- The other continent : Asia -- Epitaph for world communism -- Revolution in Eastern Europe -- The Malta Summit -- Redrawing the map of Europe -- The new Germany -- Baltic triangle -- The third man breaks loose -- A new world order? -- Endings -- Postscript.

"A British historian and author investigates the final years of the Cold War from both sides of the Iron Curtain, discussing the relationship between Reagan and Gorbachev whose unprecedented, historic cooperation worked against the odds to end the arms race,"--NoveList.

On 26 December 1991, the hammer-and-sickle flag was lowered over the Kremlin for the last time. Just six years earlier, when Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and chose Eduard Shevardnadze as his foreign minister, the Cold War had seemed like a permanent fixture in world politics. Until its denouement, no Western or Soviet politician foresaw that the standoff between the two superpowers--after decades of struggle over every aspect of security, politics, economics, and ideas--would end within the lifetime of the current generation. Nor was it at all obvious that the Soviet political leadership would undertake a huge internal reform of the USSR, or that the threat of a nuclear Armageddon could be peacefully wound down. Drawing on pioneering archival research, Robert Service's investigation of the final years of the Cold War pinpoints the extraordinary relationships between Ronald Reagan, Gorbachev, George Shultz, and Shevardnadze, who found ways to cooperate during times of exceptional change around the world.--Adapted from book jacket.

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