The dramatic events of Fall 1989 in East Germany changed global dynamics forever. These were the days of peaceful mass demonstrations, as East German citicens took the offensive in the struggle for freedom and democracy and the ruling party and its "security organs" gradually forfeited their power. After the collapse of the SED regime, a variety of citizens' movements and parties debated many possible ways of changing the political and social system in East Germany. But on March, 18, when ...

Remote island. Haunted hotel.Forty staff. One guest per night.This is the Drowned Baby Inn, a premiere horror theme park reserved for the wealthiest of patrons. By day the guests are pampered with luxuries-five star meals, spa, sauna-all one could ask of an upscale resort.By night they are free to explore this labyrinth-rooms littered with murdered mannequins; hallways echoing with unseen footsteps; every corner exuding a malice from a time long gone and past. The g...

A brilliant investigation into the most powerful institution you’ve never heard of.**“An absorbing and thorough examination.” —**ReutersThe Bank for International Settlements is the bank for central banks. It is one of the world’s most secretive—and most influential—global financial institutions.Created by the governors of the Bank of England and the Reichsbank in 1930 and protected by an international treaty, the BIS and i...

“[Matlock’s] account of Reagan’s achievement as the nation’s diplomat in chief is a public service.”—The New York Times Book Review“Engrossing . . . authoritative . . . a detailed and reliable narrative that future historians will be able to draw on to illuminate one of the most dramatic periods in modern history.”—Los Angeles Times Book ReviewIn Reagan and Gorbachev, Jack F. Matlock, Jr., a former U.S. ambassador...

When Strategies of Containment was first published, the Soviet Union was still a superpower, Ronald Reagan was president of the United States, and the Berlin Wall was still standing. This updated edition of Gaddis' classic carries the history of containment through the end of the Cold War. Beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt's postwar plans, Gaddis provides a thorough critical analysis of George F. Kennan's original strategy of containment, NSC-68, The Eisenhower-Dulles "New Look...

A controversial look at Reagan's role in ending the Cold War- from the author of The New York Times bestseller Rise of the VulcansIn his surprising new book, critically lauded author James Mann trains his keen analytical eye on Ronald Reagan and the Soviet Union, shedding new light on the hidden aspects of American foreign policy. Drawing on recent interviews and previously unavailable documents, Mann offers a new history assessing what Reagan did...

This is a fascinating new overview of European-American relations during the long twentieth century. Ranging from economics, culture and consumption to war, politics and diplomacy, Mary Nolan charts the rise of American influence in Eastern and Western Europe, its mid-twentieth century triumph and its gradual erosion since the 1970s. She reconstructs the circuits of exchange along which ideas, commodities, economic models, cultural products and people moved across the Atlantic, capturing t...

An economic history of the Soviet Union, from its inception in 1917 to its demise in 1991. It is in the economics of the Leninist state, not its politics or ideology, that we find the seeds of its destruction. By examining the economics of the USSR, we can see not only why the Russian Revolution took the course that it did, but why it could not have taken any other path.

Franz Neumann's classic account of the governmental workings of Nazi Germany, first published in 1942, is reprinted in a new paperback edition with an introduction by the distinguished historian Peter Hayes. Neumann was one of the only early Frankfurt School thinkers to examine seriously the problem of political institutions. After the rise of the Nazis to power, his emphasis shifted to an analysis of economic power, and then after the war to political psychology. But his contributions in ...

In The Triumph of Improvisation**, James Graham Wilson takes a long view of the end of the Cold War, from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 to Operation Desert Storm in January 1991.** Drawing on deep archival research and recently declassified papers, Wilson argues that adaptation, improvisation, and engagement by individuals in positions of power ended the specter of a nuclear holocaust. Amid ambivalence and uncertainty, Mikhai...

The East-West struggle for supremacy from 1945 to 1989 shaped the lives of hundreds of millions and brought the world to the brink of disaster on several occasions. More than two decades on, the debate over its causes and dynamics is far from over. Drawing on the latest archival evidence and scholarly research, prize-winning historian John Lamberton Harper provides a concise, briskly-written assessment of the Cold War. Why did it start, and eventually envelope nearly every corner of the pl...

A sweeping history of twentieth-century Europe that examines its unprecedented destruction—and abiding promiseA sweeping history of twentieth-century Europe, Out of Ashes tells the story of an era of unparalleled violence and barbarity yet also of humanity, prosperity, and promise.Konrad Jarausch describes how the European nations emerged from the nineteenth century with high hopes for continued material progress and proud of their imperial command...