"Masterful.” —The Guardian"Propulsive." —The Wall Street Journal"Leebaert has done the near impossible—crafted a fresh and challenging portrait of the man and his inner circle.”— Richard Norton Smith, author of An Uncommon Man, former director of the Hoover, Eisenhower, Reagan, and Ford presidential libraries.“A fascinating and absorbing analysis o...

AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ are the latest in a string of blunders that includes Vietnam and an unintended war with China from 1950 to ’53, those four fiascoes being just the worst moments in nearly a lifetime of false urgencies, intelligence failures, grandiose designs, and stereotyping of enemies and allies alike. America brought down the Soviet empire at the cold war’s most dangerous juncture, but even that victory was surrounded by myths, such as the conviction that we can ea...

A new understanding of the postwar power struggle between the fading British Empire and the rising American superpower—with insights for today: "Riveting." — The Wall Street JournalAn enduring myth of the twentieth century is that the United States rapidly became a superpower in the years after World War II, when the British Empire—the greatest in history—was too wounded to maintain a global presence. In fact, Derek Leebaert argues in Grand Improvisatio...

One of the great myths of the twentieth century is that after the Second World War Britain simply relinquished its power and America quickly embraced its worldwide political and military commitments. Instead the two allies improvised an uneasy, shifting partnership for twelve long years while most of western Europe lay in turmoil and Russia grew more aggressive.But in 1957 Washington issued a ‘declaration of independence’ from British authority. It was then that everything changed,...

In the tradition of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Leebaert tells the stories of small forces that have triumphed over vastly larger ones and changed the course of history—from the Trojan Horse to Al Qaeda.To Dare and to Conquer offers a theory of war and politics, recounting the stories of small forces that have triumphed over vastly larger ones and changed the course of history, and illuminating why some giants fall and others do not."[An] in-depth and insightfu...

This book, first published in 1981, examines the influences affecting Soviet military thinking planning and theory in the later Cold War. It offers for the first time an insight into the range of premises and calculations surrounding the Soviet conception of power, and makes the connection between Soviet studies and military strategy, a link often missed in the West. It discusses comparative doctrines, cultural differences, arms control and specific security challenges between East and Wes...

The vital debates on government today are concerned with its social role, its participation in the economy, and its redistributive responsibilities. These functions, not defined in the Constitution, reflect the evolution of society and its values and the powerful but jerky hand of the political process.

This book demonstrates that under the leadership of President Ronald Reagan and through the mechanism of his National Security Council staff, the United States developed and executed a comprehensive grand strategy, involving the coordinated use of the diplomatic, informational, military, and economic instruments of national power, and that grand strategy led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. In doing so, it refutes three orthodoxies: that Reagan and his administration deserve little cre...

As the world's superpowers and corporations jostle for control in space, A. C. Grayling asks: who really owns our planet?'Grayling brings satisfying order to daunting subjects.' STEVEN PINKERSilicon for microchips; manganese for batteries; titanium for missiles.The moon contains a wealth of natural resources. So, as the Earth’s supplies have begun to dwindle, it is no surprise that the world’s superpowers and wealthiest cor...

A sweeping behind-the-scenes look at the last four turbulent decades of “the paper of record,” The New York Times, as it confronted world-changing events, internal scandals, and faced the existential threat of the internet“An often enthralling chronicle [that] delivers the gossipy goods . . . Like Robert Caro’s biographies, [The Times] should appeal to anyone interested in power.”—Los Angeles TimesA KI...

A richly absorbing book... Overy is unquestionably one of our finest living historians - The Daily TelegraphWhy has warfare always been part of the human story?From biology to belief, what explains the persistence of violent conflict?What light can this shed on humanity’s past – and its future?There can be few more important but also more contentious issues than attempting to understand the human propensity for conflict. Our history i...

'Few people have shown more commitment to investigative journalism than Patrick Alley. His latest book is a vivid, compelling testament to the importance of revealing corruption and wrong-doing and shining a light into dark places, wherever in the world they are.' -Peter Geoghegan, author of Democracy for SaleA small number of people, motivated by an insatiable greed for power and wealth have driven the world to the brink of destruction. They are backed by...