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Title details for To Build a Better World by Philip Zelikow - Wait list

To Build a Better World

Choices to End the Cold War and Create a Global Commonwealth

by Philip Zelikow
Condoleezza Rice
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A deeply researched international history and "exemplary study" (New York Times Book Review) of how a divided world ended and our present world was fashioned, as the world drifts toward another great time of choosing.

Two of America's leading scholar-diplomats, Philip Zelikow and Condoleezza Rice, have combed sources in several languages, interviewed leading figures, and drawn on their own firsthand experience to bring to life the choices that molded the contemporary world. Zeroing in on the key moments of decision, the might-have-beens, and the human beings working through them, they explore both what happened and what could have happened, to show how one world ended and another took form. Beginning in the late 1970s and carrying into the present, they focus on the momentous period between 1988 and 1992, when an entire world system changed, states broke apart, and societies were transformed. Such periods have always been accompanied by terrible wars — but not this time.
This is also a story of individuals coping with uncertainty. They voice their hopes and fears. They try out desperate improvisations and careful designs. These were leaders who grew up in a "postwar" world, who tried to fashion something better, more peaceful, more prosperous, than the damaged, divided world in which they had come of age. New problems are putting their choices, and the world they made, back on the operating table. It is time to recall not only why they made their choices, but also just how great nations can step up to great challenges.
Timed for the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, To Build a Better World is an authoritative depiction of contemporary statecraft. It lets readers in on the strategies and negotiations, nerve-racking risks, last-minute decisions, and deep deliberations behind the dramas that changed the face of Europe — and the world — forever.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 10, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781549119521
      • File size: 495404 KB
      • Duration: 17:12:05

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 2, 2019
      Diplomat and professor Zelikow and former secretary of state Rice follow their joint work on German reunification, Germany United and Europe Transformed, with an exploration of the policy decisions, made and unmade, that led to the end of the Cold War and the creation of a unified Europe in 1988–1992. The authors, who were both involved in these decisions, excel at analytical history, breaking down various political, diplomatic, and economic factors in Mikhail Gorbachev’s democratic reforms (which hastened the end of the Soviet Union through a failed 1991 coup), the opening of the Berlin Wall, and the development of the E.U. as it exists today. Insights into the personalities of the main political players are scant, but the reader is given occasional reassessments of the conventional wisdom on figures such as President George H. W. Bush, and the authors intersperse brief firsthand perspectives from key decision makers, such as Secretary of State James A. Baker and national security advisor Brent Scowcroft. Zelikow and Rice’s thoughtful and honest assessment, largely avoiding wonkishness, lays a clear through line from the diplomatic successes of the 1980s and ’90s to the political environment of today.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Arthur Morey sounds like a news commentator as he narrates this sweeping historical study subtitled "Choices to End the Cold War and Create a Global Commonwealth." Author Zelikow, former counselor to the U.S. State Department, teams up with Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state, to explain the politics and economics of Europe and the United States from 1988 through the early 1990s, with particular emphasis on the careers of Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin. Morey's unwavering narration maintains the listener's attention while recounting events and reading documents that reach back to WWI and into the present, emphasizing partnerships, principles, and practicality, and marking the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      August 16, 2019

      In 1995, political scientists Zelikow and Rice published the influential study, Germany Unified and Europe Transformed. Here, they've updated and broadened that work, with former U.S. secretary of state Rice bringing much of her experience into their assessment of events and leaders. The central focus is on the significant changes in Europe between 1988 to 1992, though the authors also provide a useful overview and critique of global trade and foreign relations in the 1970s and 1980s. While German chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian president Vladimir Putin frame the book, the major players are former world leaders, such as Mikhail Gorbachev, George H.W. Bush, Helmut Kohl, Francois Mitterand, and Margaret Thatcher. The authors devote a long chapter to the choices made by Gorbachev that ultimately led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and revisit the dynamics of the reunification of Germany. A later section discusses the ongoing challenges in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the invasion of Iraq, the financial crisis of 2008, Brexit, and the Donald Trump presidency. Zelikow and Rice ask, "Can a confident America rise again?" They are hopeful but not entirely certain. VERDICT While scholarly, this work is written with a light touch and tells compelling stories about choices made by a number of countries and their leaders. It will appeal both to scholars of international politics and informed readers.--Thomas Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, PA

      Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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