America on the Brink: How the Political Struggle Over the War of 1812 Almost Destroyed the Young Republic
by Richard Buel
"This study of the young republic's first anti-war movement will interest any serious student of U.S. foreign policy. Sophisticated, well-educated New England Federalists loathed the conflict that was brought on — without proper preparations and on somewhat dubious grounds — by the brusque Jacksonian hordes of the unwashed South and West. Yet the antiwar movement not only failed to stop the war; long before the notorious call for the Hartford Convention, the Federalists were facing political disaster. Buel's history shows us why." —Walter Russell Mead
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The Lights That Failed: European International History, 1919-1933
by Zara Steiner
"This huge study of Europe after the end of World War I is an awesome achievement, thanks to the author's extraordinary immersion in diplomatic and economic history and expertise in the complex issues of debts and reparations, security and disarmament, and nationalism. . . . her exploration is so thorough and incisive that . . . the story felt as new as it was tragic." —Stanley Hoffmann
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Privatization in Latin America: Myths and Reality
Edited by Alberto Chong and Florencio Lopez de Silanes
"Nineteen Latin American economists present a powerful, well-documented case that the privatization of state-owned enterprises has been a regional success story, popular perceptions notwithstanding. . . This accessible, state-of-the-art collection will be valuable reading to students of privatization worldwide." —Richard Feinberg
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Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin's Russia and the End of Revolution
by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser
"Baker and Glasser, The Washington Post's husband-and-wife team in Moscow from 2001 to 2004, are sharp-eyed and knowing. Having seen, felt, and tasted Putin's Russia, they paint with clear but somber strokes . . . Baker and Glasser have dug deeply and interviewed well and widely, offering on all the headline issues — from the 2002 Moscow theater seizure and the 2004 Beslan school massacre to the Khodorkovsky case and the 2004 presidential election — details available nowhere else." —Robert Legvold
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I Didn't Do It For You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation
by Michela Wrong
"Wrong has written a penetrating history of Eritrea...Wrong has an eye for the telling anecdote, and the book's many vignettes, rich characters, and empathetic writing make for excellent reading." —Nicolas van de Walle
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