by Norman Stone
On the political side, see Robert Dallek, An Unfinished Life (2003), on JFK, and his Flawed Giant (1999) on Johnson, and Robert E. Quirk, Fidel Castro (1996). Of books on Vietnam, I single out despite very strong competition Michael Lind, Vietnam (2002), Frances Fitzgerald, Fire in the Lake (2002), Mark W. Woodruff, Unheralded Victory (1999), and Gabriel Kolko, Vietnam (1986). See also Margaret Macmillan, Nixon and Mao (2007). Jonathan Aitken, Nixon (1993), is sympathetic.
The worldwide inflationary consequences of this era are documented by Harold James, International Financial History in the Twentieth Century (2003), and Barry Eichengreen, The European Economy since 1945 (2007). Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money (2008), is a superb exercise in perspective, with sharp comments as to particular instances of greed and stupidity. Daniel Yergin, The Prize (1992), examines the most important element in the inflationary crisis of the 1970s and has also become a classic.
The counter-attack of the later 1970s and the following capitalist boom of the 1980s are recorded in Arthur Seldon, Capitalism (1990), Edward Luttwak, Turbo-Capitalism (1998), Paul Craig Roberts, The Supply Side Revolution (1984). Andrew Brown, Fishing in Utopia (2008), is a sympathetic account of the failure of the Swedish model. Graham Hancock, Lords of Poverty (1989), attacks the business, or racket, of international aid. It owes much to Peter Bauer, Reality and Rhetoric (1985).
American demonstrations that the welfare system had failed are legion, but see especially Charles Murray, Losing Ground (1984), and Myron Magnet, The Dream and the Nightmare (2000). Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, The Commanding Heights (1998), are triumphalist.
Chile emerges with Nathaniel Davis, The Last Two Years of Salvador Allende (1985), and Mary Helen Spooner, Soldiers in a Narrow Land: The Pinochet Regime in Chile (1994); and Turkey in Andrew Mango, The Turks To-day (2004), Nicole Pope and Hugh Pope, Turkey Unveiled (2004), Hamit Bozarslan, La Question kurde (1997), Anne Krueger and Okan Aktan, Swimming against the Tide (1992), and William Hale, Turkish Politics and the Military (1993). A good account is Mehmet Ali Birand, Thirty Hot Days (1985), but we are not spoiled for Turks’ own accounts of their recent history.
For British affairs, we are indeed spoiled. Hugo Young, One of Us (1989), is understanding of Margaret Thatcher’s approach, though at the time he was a considerable critic. Richard Cockett’s Thinking the Unthinkable (1994) is a classic about the IEA. The memoirs of Denis Healey (1989), Nigel Lawson (1992) and of course Margaret Thatcher herself (1993 and 1995) record the era. John Hoskyns’s Just in Time (2000) is a little gem as to what went wrong, right and wrong again. Ferdinand Mount, Mind the Gap (2004), is an immensely thoughtful exercise. Melanie Phillips, All Must Have Prizes (1996), is another on education. In general, Alan Sked, An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Post-War Britain (1997), and Richard Vinen, Thatcher’s Britain (2009), can be strongly recommended.
The fate of the eighties ‘revolution’ in the Atlantic world causes head-shaking. The poet of the era is Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987), but there are precursors of great power, Radical Chic (1970), The Painted Word (1975), and From Bauhaus to Our House (1981), making mock. For England, Simon Jenkins, Accountable to None (1995), is a brilliant book. David Frum, Dead Right (1995), shows how developments in finance derailed affairs in the USA. By contrast, Lou Cannon, President Reagan (1991), accepts he was wrong about the deficits. Niall Ferguson, Colossus (2005), shakes his head. A very thoughtful account of the USA is John Micklethwaite and Adrian Wooldridge, The Right Nation (2004). The grubby underside of the 1980s appears in Michael Lewis, Liar’s Poker (1989), and Tom Bower, Maxwell (1988), while the strange cultural impoverishment is well displayed by Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation (2002), and Reefer Madness (2004). The thoughtful will find much thought in Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism (1996), Michael Medved, Hollywood vs America (1993), and Robert Hewison, Culture and Consensus (1995). Since the financial upheavals that came with the end of the Reagan era, there have been a great many alarmist and even contemptuous accounts, notably from Paul Krugman, e.g. Peddling Prosperity (1994). Joseph Stiglitz, The Roaring Nineties (2004), has less than the usual problem, of failing to explain why the seventies did not roar. Robert L. Bartley, The Seven Fat Years (1995), is another classic on the Reagan years and what went wrong. Kenneth Hopper and William Hopper, The Puritan Gift (2007), is a splendid demonstration of the fantasy world of the business school. Finally, a work of futurology which, unlike so many, survives: Hamish McRae, The World in 2020 (1994).
On the end of the Cold War, aside from Soutou and Fontaine, cited above, there are good essays on separate subjects. John O’Sullivan, The President, the Pope and the Prime Minister (2006), and Peter Schweizer, Victory (1996), set out the Reagan-Thatcher strategy. On separate theatres there are good books, e.g. Walter Lafeber, Inevitable Revolutions, on US involvement in Central America (1984) and an excellent English account, Simon Strong, Shining Path (1992). It notes the Kurdish connection of the Peruvian Sendero Luminoso. Christopher Kremmer, The Carpet Wars (2003), and Henry S. Bradsher, Afghan Communism and Soviet Intervention (1999), cover the Afghan tragedy. As an Islamic dimension developed, self-pity and resentment emerged with Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978), of which there is a stupendous destruction job done by Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing (2006).
For the end of the Soviet bloc, the once sniffed-at Right clearly had the best of things. Vladimir Boukovsky, Jugement à Moscou (1995), is a wonderful book, for some odd reason only partially translated into English. It was based on Politburo documents and much else; see also Evgeny Novikov, Gorbachev and the Collapse of the Soviet Communist Party (1994). There are two further French accounts: Françoise Thom, The Gorbachev Phenomenon (1989), and Alain Besançon, Présent soviétique et passé russe (1980). More conventional accounts are John B. Dunlop, The Rise of Russia and the Fall of the Soviet Empire (1995), and, by a veteran of sovietology, Archie Brown, The Gorbachev Factor (1996). Another view is Ben Fowkes, The Dissolution of the Soviet Union (1997). Ronald G. Suny, The Soviet Experiment (1998), is important for the nationality dimension. Charles Maier, Dissolution (1998), shows how the end of East Germany was planned from Moscow. Jens Hacker, Deutsche Irrtümer, Schönfärber und Helfershelfer der SED-Diktatur im Westen (1992), and Stefan Wolle, Die heile Welt der Diktatur (1998), show how it had to be done in the teeth of considerable unenthusiasm from West Germany.
Finally, Europe. Its ever-closer union does not make for an interesting story line, and that side of things is best confined to efficient short accounts, such as Michael Maclay, The European Union (1998). European success stories are of course there: Charles Powell, España en democracia 1975-2000 (2001), and John Hooper, The New Spaniards (2006), splendidly discuss the case of Spain. However, other than in the British case, the ‘European’ story is on the whole one of head-shaking and pessimism. Marc Fumaroli, L’Etat culturel (1992), is a brilliant book on the displacement of the old university by an ever-grinning ministry of culture. H.-P. Schwarz, Die gezähmten Deutschen (1985), wonders why German policy is either ‘me, too’ or ‘oh, dear’. Bernard Connolly, The Rotten Heart of Europe (1995), is dismissive of Brussels manoeuvring, and David Marsh, Germany and Europe (1994), shows how very keen the Germans were to have, in the flat turn of speech, a European Germany rather than a German Europe. David Smith, Will Europe Work? (1999), is a good piece of Atlantic scepticism. As to where we all go from here, the latter chapters of Niall Ferguson’s Ascent of Money, not greatly interested by Europe, not vastly admiring of the bankers’ role, but very taken up with the relationship of the United States and China, are a very good pointer.
Index
A
Abakumov, Viktor
Abdullah, King of Jordan
Abercrombie, Sir Patrick
Abidjan
ABM (anti-ballistic missile) treaty (1972)
abortion
Abrams, Creighton
Acheson, Dean
actors, politics of
Adana
Adenauer, Konrad:
acceptance of division of Germany
and Berlin crisis of
diplomatic relations with USSR
and EEC
and Erhard
founding of Christian Democratic Union
and Franco-German relations
privatization policy
and Suez crisis
and universities
and welfare system
Adzhubey, Alexey
Afghanistan
AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations)
Aganbegyan, Abel
Ağca, Mehmet Alı
Agent Orange (herbicide)
Agitation and Propaganda, Department of (USSR)
Agnew, Spiro
Agrarian Party (Czechoslovak)
AIDS
Aitken, Jonathan
Aitmatov, Cingiz
Akhmatova, Anna
Alaska
Alaskan Pipeline
Albania
Albanians
Alevis
Algeria:
French rule
independence
nationalism
oil production
pieds noirs
Algerian war (1954-62)
Algiers
Aliev, Haydar
Allende, Salvador:
background and character
and Carter
election as president
international reputation
overthrow and death
reforms
speech to United Nations (1972)
‘Alliance for Progress’ (American plan for Latin America)
Alma Ata
Almeida, Juan
Alsthom-Atlantique (corporation)
Altamira, Carlos
Althusser, Louis
Altman, Nathan
Amalrik, Andrey
Amin, Hafizullah
Anatolia
GAP project
Anderson, Lindsay
Andics, Erzsébert
Andreotti, Giulio
Andropov, Yuri:
and Afghanistan
General Secretary
and Gorbachev
KGB head
nationalities policy
Angola
Ankara
Ankara College
Ankara University
Bilkent University
Çubuk reservoir
Middle East Technical University
Anna Comnena, Princess
Annan, Noel, Baron
Our Age
Antep
anti-alcohol campaign (USSR)
anti-Fascism
anti-semitism
anti-Zionism
Ap Bac, battle of (1963)
appeasement
Apple (corporation)
Aqaba, Gulf of
Aquinas, Thomas
Arab Legion
Arafat, Yasser
Aragon, Louis
Araucanian Indians
Arbatov, Georgy
Arbenz, Jacobo
Arendt, Hannah
Argentina
Falklands War (1982)
Arizona
Armenia
Armenians
ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam)
Assad, Hafiz
Assyrian Christians
Astor, David
Aswan Dam
AT&T (corporation)
Atatürk, Mustafa Kemal
Athens
atomic bombs:
American
British
espionage
Soviet see also nuclear weapons
Atomic Energy Commission
Atomium (Brussels)
Attali, Jacques
Auschwitz concentration camp
Australia
Austria:
army
author’s studies in
Catholic Church
Communist Party
cultural institutions
Dollfuss dictatorship
espionage in
Jewish transit centre
Marshall Plan aid
neutrality
post-war occupation zones
pre-First World War parliament
private companies
relations with Hungary
Social Democrats
Staatsvertrag (state treaty; 1955)
and USSR
war criminals
Yugoslav territorial claims
Austrian school of economics
Austro-Hungarian empire
automobile industry:
Britain
France
Germany
Italy
Japan
Sweden
USA
AVO (Hungarian security police)
Aylwin, Patricio
Azerbaidjan
Azeri Turks
Aznavour, Charles
B
Baader, Andreas
Bacílek, Karol
Bacon, Robert, Britain’s Economic Problem
Bad Godesberg
Baden
Baden-Baden
Baekeland, Leo
Baghdad Pact
Bagram airbase
Bahr, Egon
Bahrain
Bakelite
Baker, James
Baker, Kenneth, Baron Baker of Dorking
Baku
Congress of the Peoples of the East (1920)
Balfour Declaration (1917)
Balogh, Sándor
Balogh, Thomas, Baron
Baltic states see also Estonia; Latvia; Lithuania
Baltimore
Baluchis
Balzac, Honoré de
Bandung conference (1955)
Bank of England
Bank for International Settlements
banking crisis (2008-9)
Barcelona
Barchard, David
Bari
Barings Bank
Barkey, Henri
Barnett, Correlli
Barraclough, Geoffrey, Origins of Modern Germany
Barthes, Roland
Bartley, Robert
Barzani, Mustafa
BASF (corporation)
Basle
Batista, Fulgencio
Bauer, Peter, Baron
Bavaria
Bay of Pigs invasion (1961)
Bayly, Sir Christopher
Bayonne
Bayreuth
BBC
Bearsden, Scotland
Beatles, the
Beckett, Samuel
Beduins
Beethoven, Ludwig van
Fidelio
Belgian Congo
Belgium:
coal and steel production
colonies
and EEC
and Kurdish nationalism
and Marshall Plan
nationalism
oil imports
Second World War
universities see also Benelux
Belgrano (battleship)
Bell, Marie
Ben Bella, Ahmed
Benelux
Beneš, Edvard
Bengal
Bennett, Catherine
Bennett, William
Beria, Lavrenti
overthrow and execution
Berkeley, University of
Berlin:
blockade of 1948-9
bomb damage
crisis of 1961
introduction of Deutsche Mark in Western zone
Soviet occupation zone
wartime
see also East Berlin; West Berlin
Berlin Wall:
building of
fall of
Berman, Jakub
Besançon, Alain
Bessarabia
Bessmertnykh, Aleksandr
Bevin, Ernest
Bichelonne, Jean
Bien Hoa airfield
Biermann, Wolf
Bierut, Bolesław
Biffen, John, Baron
Bilkent University
Bíngöl
biological warfare
biotechnology
Birmingham
Birmingham University
Bismarck, Otto von
Bissell, Richard
Bitlis
‘Bizonia’/‘Trizonia’ (Allied occupation zones in Germany)
Blackbourn, David
Blair, Tony
Blake, William
Blanning, Tim
Bloch, Ernst
Blunt, (Sir) Anthony
Blyukher, Vasily
BMW (automobile manufacturer)
‘boat people’:
Cambodian
Vietnamese
Bodleian Library, Oxford
Bogomolov, Oleg
Bohlen, Charles E.
Bohley, Bärbel
Böhm, Karl
Bokassa, Jean-Bédel
Bolivia
Bologna
Bolsheviks:
and bureaucracy
and China
Civil War
Congress of the Peoples of the East (1920)
lies of
Revolution
and science
Bond, James (fictional character)
Bonn
Borinage
Borland Software Corporation
Borodin, Mikhail
Boston
Bourgès-Maunoury, Maurice
BP (British Petroleum)
Bradlee, Ben
Braestrup, Peter
Brandt, Willy:
background and character
elected Chancellor
foreign minister
mayor of West Berlin
memoirs
Nobel Peace Prize
Ostpolitik
resignation
Braşov
Bratislava
author’s imprisonment in
Braudel, Fernand
Braun, Otto
Brazil
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (film)
Brecht, Bertolt
Brentano, Lujo
Brescia
Brest-Litovsk
Bretherton, Russell
Bretton Woods conference (1944)
Bretton Woods system
end of
Triffin Dilemma
Brezhnev, Leonid:
and Afghanistan
and arms limitiation talks
background and character
