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Books : Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet EmpireIn association with Amazon.comby: Michael Dobbs  List Price: $16.00 Amazon.com's Price: $10.88 You Save: $5.12 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 947.084 EAN: 9780679751519 ISBN: 0679751513 Label: Vintage Manufacturer: Vintage Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 528 Publication Date: January 12, 1998 Publisher: Vintage Release Date: January 12, 1998 Studio: Vintage Sales Rank: 451953 Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: "One of the great stories of our time . . . a wonderful anecdotal history of a great drama." --San Francisco Chronicle Book Review As Washington Post correspondent in Moscow, Warsaw, and Yugoslavia in the final decade of the Soviet empire, Michael Dobbs had a ringside seat to the extraordinary events that led to the unraveling of the Bolshevik Revolution. From Tito's funeral to the birth of Solidarity in the Gda´nsk shipyard, from the tragedy of Tiananmen Square to Boris Yeltsin standing on a tank in the center of Moscow, Dobbs saw it all. The fall of communism was one of the great human dramas of our century, as great a drama as the original Bolshevik revolution. Dobbs met almost all of the principal actors, including Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, Václav Havel, and Andrei Sakharov. With a sweeping command of the subject and the passion and verve of an eyewitness, he paints an unforgettable portrait of the decade in which the familiar and seemingly petrified Cold War world--the world of Checkpoint Charlie and Dr. Strangelove--vanished forever. "Down with Big Brother ranks very high among the plethora of books about the fall of the Soviet Union and the death throes of Communism. It is possibly the most vividly written of the lot." -- Adam B. Ulam, Washington Post Book World Amazon.com Review: Ever wonder what it would be like to witness a series of historical turning points? Just ask Michael Dobbs--or read his book. As a longtime foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, Dobbs personally witnessed many of the great events in the final decade of the Iron Curtain, from the 1980 Warsaw strikes to Boris Yeltsen's heroic defiance of a Communist coup in 1991. Mikhail Gorbachev is a dominant figure on these pages, but his role in the Cold War endgame is enigmatic. Dobbs calls him "a strange amalgam of genius and incompetence, idealism and egotism, naive and cunning." The verdict on Dobbs is much clearer: his journalism will instruct future historians. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Good work about this subject.I read this book, translated to portuguese, here in Brazil.It's a good book about this subject.It describes the soviet fall.There's failures in this book?Yes.It has no enough details about soviet fall.Even so, thid book is good and fun to read. Rating:  - Burial deferred"Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!" - Nikita Khrushchev, November 17, 1956 In DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, author Michael Dobbs begins his narrative on December 26, 1979 as members of the Soviet Union's ruling Politburo gather to lay before Communist Party General Secretary Brezhnev the final plans for the invasion of Afghanistan. Dobbs ends his narrative at 7:00 PM on December 25, 1991, when General Secretary Gorbachev, in a television address broadcast ... Read More Rating: - Great read. Compels you to turn the page.This is a terrific book. It makes history come alive through the people, big and small, who caused Communism to collapse from within the Spviet Union. It is easy to feel you are there as the pages replay the key events during the 80's and early 90's. I was most impressed by the author's ability to craft this epic into a gripping, moving story. Well done!! Rating: - A Vivid and Compelling NarrativeThis is a compelling and vivid description of the events that led to the toatal disintegration of the Soviet Empire, from the collapse of its East European satellite states to the impolosion of the USSR itself. Dobbs was an eyewitness to many events described in the book, and he writes accurately and convincingly. The beginning of the end of the Soviet Empire is traced to the final years of Brezhnev's rule, with its stagnation, over the hill, senile politicians, and the tragic decision to invade Afghanistan. ... Read More Rating: - Pretty good, but missed a few pointsA very readable book; made some excellent points. One thing Dobbs ignores completely, though, was the actual breaking down of the Berlin Wall by people wielding hammers and other instruments. The Wall had already been opened, yes, but the sight of people demolishing it, flashed around the world on TV, was of immense symbolic significance and it accordingly accelerated the downfall of Communism. Also, here's some food for thought: Andropov wasn't picked to lead the USSR as a "caretaker"; his death was untimely. ... Read More Browse for similar items by category:
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