The Peacemaker

This is an unusual choice of favourite for me, but William Inboden's viewpoint in 'The Peacemaker' is an unusual take on what was seen in the 1990s as the end of the Cold War. Inboden argues that Ronald Reagan was the primary actor in bringing about the collapse of the Soviet Union. There are many counter-arguments from other historians, especially when the history is viewed from a non-American standpoint. So calling Reagan a peacemaker may seem a contradiction and is perhaps deliberately provocative. But Inboden argues his case effectively in a well-researched and always engaging narrative. Definitely worth reading.

In The Peacemaker, William Inboden draws on declassified materials, interviews with high-level government officials, and on Reagan’s personal diary to write the most thorough, fair, and scrupulously researched account of Reagan’s foreign policy and the successful end of the Cold War.

And he does this with such aplomb that his history reads like a novel. I worked in the US government in the 1980s and thought I knew Reagan’s foreign policy well, but I discovered much that was new and couldn’t put the book down.