LibGuides: NEH Institute: U.S.-Soviet Relations, 1985-1991

Databases

Journal Article Databases

These article databases have the most relevant material related to the Institute topic of United States-Russian/Soviet relations.

Empire Online This link opens in a new window
A collection of primary source documents, Empire Online covers the rise and fall of European empires from 1500 CE through the twentieth century.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR contains the full-text of articles from core journals in several academic disciplines, including history. Coverage is from each journal's first issue and continues through 2-5 years from the most recently published issues.

Guide to JSTOR

Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Project Muse offers full-text articles from journals in the humanities and social sciences, including history. Full-text coverage for each journal is usually from the mid-90s through the present.

U.S.-Soviet Relations, 1985-1991

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Ronald Reagan, "Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate," 12 June 1987.

Ronald Reagan, "Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session with the Students and Faculty at Moscow State University," 31 May 1988.

Ronald Reagan, "Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session at a World Affairs Council Luncheon in Los Angeles, California," 28 October 1988.

Mikhail Gorbachev, "Speech to the United Nations," 7 December 1988.

Mikhail Gorbachev, "Resignation Speech," 26 December 1991.

Secondary Sources

The American Mission and the Evil Empire : The Crusade for a Free Russia since 1881 by David S. Foglesong
Call Number: E 183.8.S65 F64 2007 (3rd Floor)
Publication Date: 2007
David Foglesong tells the fascinating story of American efforts to liberate and remake Russia since the 1880s. He analyzes the involvement of journalists, political activists, propagandists, missionaries, diplomats, engineers, and others in this grand crusade, paying special attention to the influence of religious beliefs on Americans' sense of duty to emancipate, convert, or reform Russia.
The End of the Cold War, 1985-1991 by Robert Service
Call Number: D 843 .S429 2015 (1st Floor)
Publication Date: 2015
On 26 December, 1991, the hammer-and-sickle flag was lowered over the Kremlin for the last time. Yet, just six years earlier, when Mikhail Gorbachëv became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and chose Eduard Shevardnadze as his foreign minister, the Cold War seemed like a permanent fixture in world politics. Until its denouement, no Western or Soviet politician foresaw that the standoff between the two superpowers--after decades of struggle over every aspect of security, politics, economics, and ideas--would end within the lifetime of the current generation. Nor was it at all obvious that that the Soviet political leadership would undertake a huge internal reform of the USSR, or that the threat of a nuclear Armageddon could or would be peacefully wound down.
The Fall of the Berlin Wall : Reassessing the Causes and Consequences of the End of the Cold War by Peter Schweizer
Call Number: D 849 .F35 2000 (1st Floor)
Publication Date: 2000
In February 1999 key players in U.S. foreign policy during the 1980s gathered in Washington to discuss the policies and initiatives undertaken by the Reagan administration to challenge Soviet power. The Fall of the Berlin Wall: Reassessing the Causes and Consequences of the End of the Cold War is a collection of essays based on presentations made at that historic event.
For the Soul of Mankind : The United States, Soviet Union, and the Cold War by Melvyn P. Leffler
Call Number: E 183.8.S65 L44 2007 (3rd Floor)
Publication Date: 2007
To the amazement of the public, pundits, and even the policymakers themselves, the ideological and political conflict that had endangered the world for half a century came to an end in 1990. How did that happen? What caused the cold war in the first place, and why did it last as long as it did?
The Gorbachev Factor by Archie Brown
Call Number: DK 288 .B76 1997 (1st Floor)
Publication Date: 1997
General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and political reformer, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and the force behind perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev was arguably the most important statesman of the twentieth century. Providing a balanced account of the complexities of politics in the U.S.S.R. during a period of remarkable change, The Gorbachev Factor tells the gripping story of Gorbachev's rise and fall, a story full of intrigue, secret meetings, and power struggles.
Implications of the Reykjavik Summit on Its Twentieth Anniversary by Sidney D. Drell
Call Number: Ebook
Publication Date: 2007
Drawn from presentations at the Hoover Institution's conference on the twentieth anniversary of the Reykjavik summit, this collection of essays examines the legacy of that historic meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. The contributors discuss the new nuclear era and what the lessons of Reykjavik can mean for today's nuclear arms control efforts.
The Last Decade of the Cold War : From Conflict Escalation to Conflict Transformation by Olav Njolstad (Editor)
Call Number: Ebook
Publication Date: 2004
The 1980s was a period of almost unprecedented rivalry and tension between the two main actors in the East-West conflict, the United States and the Soviet Union. Why and how that conflict first escalated and thereafter, in an amazingly swift process, was reversed and brought to its peaceful conclusion at the end of the decade is the topic of this volume.
Reagan, Bush, Gorbachev : Revisiting the End of the Cold War by Norman A. Graebner; Richard Dean Burns; Joseph M. Siracusa
Call Number: E 183.8.S65 G73 2008 (3rd Floor)
Publication Date: 2008
This work is a contemporary chronicle of the Cold War and offers an analysis of policy and rhetoric of the United States and Soviet Union during the 1980s. The authors examine the assumptions that drove political decisions and the rhetoric that defined the relationship as the Soviet Union began to implode. This work demonstrates that while the subsequent unraveling of the Soviet empire was an unintended side effect of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms, termination of the Cold War was not. Ronald Reagan deserves full credit for recognizing Gorbachev's sincerity and his determination to change the direction of Soviet policies.
Reagan and Gorbachev : how the Cold War ended by Jack F. Matlock
Call Number: E183.8.S65 M3724 2004
ISBN: 0812974891
Publication Date: 2005-11-08
In Reagan and Gorbachev, Jack F. Matlock, Jr., gives an eyewitness account of how the Cold War ended, with humankind declared the winner. As Reagan’s principal adviser on Soviet and European affairs, and later as the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R., Matlock lived history: He was the point person for Reagan’s evolving policy of conciliation toward the Soviet Union. Working from his own papers, recent interviews with major figures, and archival sources both here and abroad, Matlock offers an insider’s perspective on a diplomatic campaign far more sophisticated than previously thought, led by two men of surpassing vision.
The Reagan Reversal : Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War by Beth A. Fischer
Call Number: E 876 .F569 1997 (3rd Floor)
Publication Date: 2000
It is often assumed that Ronald Reagan's administration was reactive in bringing about the end of the cold war, that it was Mikhail Gorbachev's "new thinking" and congenial personality that led the administration to abandon its hard- line approach toward Moscow. In The Reagan Reversal, Beth A. Fischer convincingly demonstrates that President Reagan actually began seeking a rapprochement with the Kremlin fifteen months before Gorbachev took office. She shows that Reagan, known for his long-standing antipathy toward communism, suddenly began calling for "dialogue, cooperation, and understanding" between the superpowers.
Seven Years That Changed the World : Perestroika in perspective by Archie Brown
Call Number: DK 288 .B763 2008 (1st Floor)
Publication Date: 2009
A rigorously argued and lively interpretation of the transformation of the Soviet system, the disintegration of the Soviet state, the end of the Cold War, and the role of Mikhail Gorbachev. Written by a leading authority on Soviet politics, this thoroughly researched book draws on new archival sources and puts perestroika in fresh perspective.
The Triumph of Improvisation : Gobachev's Adaptability, Reagan's Engagement, and the End of the Cold War by James Graham Wilson
Call Number: Ebook
Publication Date: 2014
In The Triumph of Improvisation, James Graham Wilson takes a long view of the end of the Cold War, from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 to Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. Drawing on deep archival research and recently declassified papers, Wilson argues that adaptation, improvisation, and engagement by individuals in positions of power ended the specter of a nuclear holocaust. Amid ambivalence and uncertainty, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan, George Shultz, George H. W. Bush, and a host of other actors engaged with adversaries and adapted to a rapidly changing international environment and information age in which global capitalism recovered as command economies failed.

Finding Books

Finding Books

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