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Title: A World Transformed by George Bush, Brent Scowcroft ISBN: 0-679-75259-5 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 September, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.05 (19 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The definitive account of the end of the Cold War
Comment: A vital part of understanding the end of the Cold War. The book is at its most vivid and engaging during it's description of the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the unification of Germany and the Gulf War. Bush and Scowcroft tag team throughout the book and complement each other well. Bush's knack for incorporating anecdotes and his personal relationships with other world leaders serves him well here. However, the book is lacking in some areas, and I couldn't quite bring myself to give it 5 stars. While billed as a major part of the book, the section on the Tianamen Square uprising in China was not particularly detailed or illuminating. The book could have benefited from Bush and Scowcroft's perspective on the Panama Invasion, Somalia, and especially on the crucial decisions on US policy towards the breakup of Yugoslavia, which began on Bush's watch. Still, this is an amazing book and it was easy to feel swept up in events that many did not believe we would see happen in our lifetime, myself included. On par with the great books of international relations such as Kissinger's "A World Restored" and Acheson's "Present at the Creation."
Rating: 5
Summary: Essential Foreign Affairs work
Comment: Although they left office only six years ago, it seems the world they describe is nothing like the one today. The collapse of communism, the Gulf War, and the crackdown in China seem so far removed from the current Balkan battles and Asian/Russian economic woes.
The book is much more than a "kiss and tell" biography of the life and times of two during the Cold War. Bush and Scowcroft wisely limited their discussion to only a few matters and that allowed them to cover in more depth these important events than so many "What I Did in the White House" books that are on the market. Still, the hard core foreign affairs scholar may be seeking much more, but I think this is an important read for anyone wanting to know "how it was" at the end of the Cold War.
The book provides insight into these decisions that I found refreshing to read. It showed the personal nature that is important to diplomacy, and it spoke a great deal about trust. I don't want to sound too political because this is going to be the best history of one of the most important times since the end of World War II, but as you read about the negotiations and "first name" diplomacy practiced with incredible skill and character, you won't want to put down this book and read the newspapers because you'll just feel depressed about the current state of the Presidency.
As a friend of mine said, who hasn't yet finished the book, "It makes you long for the days when adults were in the White House."
Rating: 3
Summary: Jumpy...skip to better alternatives
Comment: I tried to force down "A World Transformed" after reading George H. W. Bush's outstanding letter- and note-based memoir "All the Best." As much as I wanted to like it, I just couldn't trudge through the entire thing. Mostly, it's the format that's at fault. You get Bush's pieces & Scowcroft's pieces interspersed with a 3rd-party disembodied voice attmepting to tie the segments together. I can appreciate that Gen. Scowcroft was a major player and needs his own voice here. But the resulting patchquilt of a book makes it tough on the reader to develop any semblance of continuity.
The other thing is that 'All the Best' introduced you to this charming, delightful, all-too-human side of our 41st President, the charasmatic guy who shows you - through his dedicated letter-writing and human touch - how to build and sustain life-long friendships. I wanted that guy to star in this book. Instead, the guy that wrote "A World Transformed" is a caricature of the tone-deaf (to the US Economy) internationalist we voted out of office in 1992.
A better route than "A World Transformed" would be to pair "All the Best" with David Halberstam's "War in a Time of Peace."
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Title: All The Best, George Bush: My Life and Other Writings by George Bush ISBN: 068483958X Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 05 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History by John Lewis Gaddis ISBN: 0198780710 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: May, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace 1989-1992 by James Addison Baker, Thomas M. Defrank ISBN: 0399140875 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Pub. Date: September, 1995 List Price(USD): $52.00 |
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Title: Into The Labyrinth: The U.S. and The Middle East 1945-1993 by H.W. Brands ISBN: 0070071888 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages Pub. Date: 01 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $39.40 |
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Title: Turmoil and Triumph: My Years As Secretary of State by George P. Shultz ISBN: 0684193256 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: May, 1993 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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