The Man Who Changed the World: The Lives of Mikhail S. Gorbachev

by Gail Sheehy

Book Overview

HARPER COLLLINS 1990 FIRST EDITION This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060165472
• ISBN13: 9780060165475
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 401 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.5" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Twelve years later . . . .

The more I read about Gorbachev, the more of an enigma he becomes. I am starting think that there are parallels between how he will be viewed and how Ikhnaton (Egyptian pharoah and high priest of the One Sun god) is viewed today. During the reigns of both, their empires dis-integrated as they sought peace and swore off the use of force. Surely, things would have turned out differently if Yeltsin had been in Gorbachev's place: the Soviet Union would have survived minus the Baltic states.That is why I find this book so interesting, because it helps to illuminate how Gorbachev's character was decisive in the total collapse of the Soviet Union. If Yeltsin had been president of the Soviet Union, he would have fought to the death for its survival.While the destruction of the Soviet Union will probably be seen as a plus for the rest of the world, it could have been very different if Gorbachev had fought for its survival after the August 1991 coup.I highly recommend this book.

More than a reference book/Purchased 1/30/1991/hardback

Pgs 190-192 trace history's military leaders and their attitudes(the Greek & Roman societies "Alexander the Great",England's Wellington,the East's Genghis Khan,how the Alexandrian-Wellington style endured in the Western world well into the 20th century...also Britain's Churchill,America's President Eisenhower(Allied Victories in Europe),Russia's Stalin's "Great Patriotic War",America's President John Kennedy's (his own naval heroism) & how he tried to demonastrate his mettle in the "Bay of Pigs Invasion",President Ronald Regan invasion of a tiny Carribbean Island,Britain's Margaret Thatcher used the Falkland war to prove women leaders could be tough as male leaders,President George Bush(41st President) & the fact that his approval ratings soared for his conduct of foreign policy for 6 wks after he had dispatched the largest post-Vietnam War military deployment since World War II to Saudi Arabia to face off Saddam Hussein...Besides the many black and white photos in this historical biography by Gail Sheehy of Gorbachev (who the pages prior to the Epilogue (pg 191)have facing off with President George Bush (41st President) where President Bush reminds him as he accuses the United States of not being sensitive to the death of millions of Soviet citizens during WW2,that of the two of them only he,Bush had actually fought in the war...The book mentions he was seen as a 'top cop' at home from 1985-1990 due to his anti-alcohol and anti-corruption campaigns...with a very courageous picture of Mikhail S. Gorbachev (3" x 5") on the inserts before Pg 211 having a squirrel eating out of the palm of his hand.