The End of the Cold War: 1985-1991

“Service takes the vast literature on the Cold War's end, adds newly available archival sources, and pulls it all together into a single massive history of how ‘Washington and Moscow achieved their improbable peace.' … To cover as many elements as Service does requires very tight writing, even in a big book such as this one: as a result, he settles for sentences rather than paragraphs to cover the necessary ground.” —Foreign Affairs

“The great nonfiction book of the year… As a serious and fascinating dive into the events that shaped our world it cannot be bettered.” —Justin Webb, The Times [UK]

“Authoritative and scholarly… The End of the Cold War gets all the big questions right. The world was fortunate to have leaders who brought a half-century nightmare to a peaceful conclusion, and his readers will be grateful for Robert Service's clear explanation of how and why it happened.” —Claremont Review of Books

“[Robert] Service's book is a great investigative achievement…[he] has given us an account, unsurpassable in its detail…” —Bookforum

“A riveting read.” —The Telegraph (UK)

A Times [UK] Book of the Year 2015

“The denouement is well known and well told in pointillist detail… [an] admirably even-handed account, which offers a compendium of the expired secrets of the White House and Kremlin.” —Wall Street Journal

"The End of the Cold War [is] a massive new study of the last days of the Soviet empire… British historian Robert Service examines newly released Politburo minutes, recently available unpublished diaries, and minutely detailed negotiation records.” —Boston Globe

"The End of the Cold War, 1985-1991 [is] a detailed, authoritative, and illuminating account of the end of the competition that defined world politics for more than four decades.” —Christian Science Monitor

“The End of the Cold War: 1985-1991 serves as a reminder that the hawks' memory of Reagan's Soviet diplomacy is selective and, ultimately, just plain inaccurate…Service succeed[s] in giving the reader a comprehensive account of the meetings and debates in the years leading up to the Soviet collapse.” —Washington Post