The End of the Cold War

1985 - 1991

Robert Service

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English

Pan
26 July 2016

History; General & world history; Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000; The Cold War

ABBEY'S CHOICE AUGUST 2016 ----- The Cold War had seemed like a permanent fixture in global politics, and until its denouement, no Western or Soviet politician foresaw that the stand-off between the two superpowers - after decades of struggle over every aspect of security, politics, economics and ideas - would end in their lifetimes. Even after March 1985 when Mikhail Gorbachëv became the leader of the Soviet Union it was not preordained that global nuclear Armageddon could or would be averted peaceably.

But just four years later, the Berlin Wall was dismantled and perestroika spread throughout the former Soviet bloc. It was a sea change in world history, which resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Drawing on pioneering archival research, Robert Service's gripping new investigation of the final years of the Cold War pinpoints the astonishing relationships among President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachëv, Secretary of State George Shultz and the USSR's last Foreign Affairs Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, who found a way to cooperate during times of extraordinary change around the world. The story is of American pressure and Soviet long-term decline and over-stretch. The End of the Cold War shows how that small, skillful group of statesmen were determined to end the Cold War on their watch. In the process, they irreversibly transformed the global geopolitical landscape.

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By: Robert Service
Imprint: Pan
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: Main Market Ed.
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 127mm, Spine: 39mm
Weight: 739g
ISBN: 9780330517294
ISBN 10: 0330517295
Pages: 656
Publication Date: 26 July 2016
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Out of Print

Robert Service is a fellow of the British Academy and of St Antony's College, Oxford, where he is Professor of Russian History; he is also a visiting fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He has written several books, including the highly acclaimed Lenin: A Biography, Russia: Experiment with a People, Stalin: A Biography, Comrades: A History of World Communism, Trotsky: A Biography, which won the 2009 Duff Cooper Prize, and, most recently, Spies and Commissars. He lives in London.

Reviews for The End of the Cold War: 1985 - 1991

What makes Service's book special is its scholarship. His terrier-like persistence in digging into previously unexcavated archives in Russia, across America and around the internet gives his view of this slice of our recent past a firm documentary foundation ... A magisterial account of a turning point in modern history, whose intellectual rigour and robustness make it unlikely to be bettered. -- Sherard Cowper-Coles Spectator Our leading historian of the Soviet Union ... magisterial. Observer Detailed and clear ... his main strength is his forensic challenge to the cliches and myths on which western triumphalism about the Cold War is based ... Service is an authoritative voice offering a more nuanced view. -- Victor Sebestyen Sunday Times A masterful chronicle about personalities and ideas ... The Cold War ended with the demise of the USSR in December 1991. The great biographer of Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky here offers a superb account of how and why this unexpected denouement came about. -- Vladimir Tismaneanu Times Higher Education Supplement Well-written and thought-provoking. -- Christopher Andrew Literary Review An abundance of superbly organized material. -- Mary Dejevsky Independent Absorbingly written, displaying an admirable command of the sources, this book is destined to become a classic of Cold War historical literature. International Affairs