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...

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 ...

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 ...

The “captivating” (The New York Times), definitive biography of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, detailing the extraordinary rise and political brilliance of the most powerful—and elusive—woman in the world.Angela Merkel has always been an outsider. A pastor’s daughter raised in Soviet-controlled East Germany, she spent her twenties working as a research chemist, entering politics only after the fall of the Berlin Wall. And yet within fifteen years, she ha...

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...

Winner of the New-York Historical Society Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American HistoryWinner of the American Academy of Diplomacy Douglas Dillon AwardShortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize in Literary NonfictionFrom the author of Battle of Bretton Woods comes a “brilliant book…by far the best study yet” (The Wall Street Journal) of the gripping history behind the Marshall Plan an...

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 ...

How the political events of 1989 shaped Europe after the Cold War1989 explores the momentous events following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the effects they have had on our world ever since. Based on documents, interviews, and television broadcasts from Washington, London, Paris, Bonn, Berlin, Warsaw, Moscow, and a dozen other locations, 1989 describes how Germany unified, NATO expansion began, and Russia got left on the periphery of the new Eur...

A no-holds-barred biography of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has become a pivotal figure in European politics since 2010, this is the first English- language study of the erstwhile anti-communist rebel turned populist autocrat. Through a masterly and cynical manipulation of ethnic nationalism, generating fear of migrants and deep-rooted corruption, Orbán has exploited successive electoral victories to build a closely knit and super-rich oligarchy. He holds unfettered power in ...

A well-balanced and detailed look at the East German Ministry for State Security, the secret police force more commonly known as the Stasi.“This is an excellent book, full of careful, balanced judgements and a wealth of concisely-communicated knowledge. It is also well written. Indeed, it is the best book yet published on the MfS.”—German HistoryThe Stasi stood for Stalinist oppression and all-encompassing surveillance. The “shield and sword of the...

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.

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...