Norman Stone is the author of World War One, The Eastern Front 1914-1917 (winner of the Wolfson Prize), and Europe Transformed. He has taught at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and Bilkent, where he is now Director of the Turkish-Russian Center. He lives in Oxford and Istanbul.
The Economist
"[Stone] has a terrific eye for detail, bringing to life everything
from the ruins of Germany to Ronald Reagan's White House with a
wonderfully waspish turn of phrase.... He captures well the West's
weakness, as well as the seemingly powerful challenge that
eastern-style socialism posed to Western freedom."
Michael Burleigh, Spectator
"Sparkling....The book's importance is to remind us that the Cold
War was an active contest, whose outcome was by no means
certain....Stone has produced a powerful alternative to the Left
'liberal' reading of Cold War history, without sounding in the
least triumphalist."
New Statesman"Stone's eye for the telling detail gives his account
of the cold war years an edge of authenticity lacking from more
conventional histories.... A beguiling mix of grand narrative and
autobiographical vignettes, The Atlantic and its Enemies is the one
book that anyone who wants to understand the cold war as it
developed must read.... [A] rich, exuberant and melancholy
book."
Wall Street Journal
Boyd Tonkin, Independent (London) (UK)
"Wandering, opinionated, mischievous, the book is strung between
two downfalls, that of the Third Reich in 1945 and the Soviet
empire in 1989. Stone's vagabond history rattles across one
world-shaking scene of upheaval after another, from the
Moscow-backed putsches of the late 1940s in eastern Europe via the
1960s' feast of fools and the 1970s convulsions that led to the
later triumph of Thatcher, Reagan and Pinochet to the unpredicted
foundering of Soviet power: Stone's terminus, and his final
vindication in the face of gormless academic fellow-travellers....
The book bristles with gleeful passages of lefty-baiting
provocation....In these moods, part-Evelyn Waugh, part-Jeremy
Clarkson, Stone just loves to goad the liberal left. Yet they
alternate with hard-headed analyses of the financial shifts behind
political facades (with a brilliant account of how Saudi oil-price
manipulation helped sink the Soviet Union), virtuoso sketches of
pivotal events (such as Papa Doc's funeral) and enthralling,
colourful swerves into memoir."
Mark Mazower, Financial Times
"Pedantic historians are just one of Norman Stone's targets in this
swashbuckling survey of the cold war. Perhaps the most brilliant
Europeanist of his generation, a man with an intimate knowledge of
at least half a dozen countries, and the languages to match, he
serves the reader a spicier fare than the pabulums provided by his
more cautious brethren." TusconCitizen.com
"What gives this hefty 668-page book its literary legs is how the
author has vividly captured the atmosphere of the time and the
moral and political crises that tempered strategies on both sides
of the Atlantic. The Atlantic and Its Enemies is full of surp
TusconCitizen.com
"What gives this hefty 668-page book its literary legs is how the
author has vividly captured the atmosphere of the time and the
moral and political crises that tempered strategies on both sides
of the Atlantic. The Atlantic and Its Enemies is full of
surprises."
Bookviews.com
"Some works of history are so monumental that they are especially
deserving of praise. This is the case of Norman Stone's The
Atlantic and Its Enemies." National Review
"[Norman Stone] paints on a broad canvas, showing how the Cold War
unfolded.... The West is currently engaged in a new sort of war,
with radical Islam.... Meanwhile, the economy of the developed
world is more precarious than it was in the darkest hours of the
1970s. Mr. Stone doesn't stop to address the contemporary crisis,
but The Atlantic and Its Enemies is an inspiring reminder that the
West has risen to meet such challenges before, helped at crucial
moments by bold leaders."
Library Journal"Stone, one of Great Britain's most distinguished
historians, now offers his own assessment of the period between the
end of World War II and the fall of the Soviet Union.... [He]
bring[s] decades of erudition to his analysis; moreover, he lived
in Eastern Europe during part of the period under review and brings
that perspective to his work as well."
John Gray, New Statesman (London)
"Stone's eye for the telling detail gives his account of the cold
war years an edge of authenticity lacking from more conventional
histories.... A beguiling mix of grand narrative and
autobiographical vignettes, The Atlantic and Its Enemies is the one
book that anyone who wants to understand the cold war as it
developed must read.... [A] rich, exuberant and melancholy
book."
The Times (UK)
"Brilliant....A forthright, brave history, full of wit and
humanity, and readable to a degree that will delight all but the
green-eyed."
Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Guardian (London)
"[Stone] knows central Europe better than most historians, and has
no sympathy with the 'revisionist' claim that the west started the
conflict, or that both sides were equally to blame.... All of this
is told in a lively or even rollicking fashion, and the word
'personal' in Stone's subtitle is an understatement; idiosyncratic
or downright eccentric might be more like it. The author is one of
the great academic characters of our time."
"Stone, the veteran British journalist and historian, has produced
an original interpretative narrative that is idiosyncratic and
downright odd in places.... Yet it is precisely Stone's departures
from the standard political-diplomatic themes that enable him to
offer a fresh and provocative perspective on events we might have
thought thoroughly familiar.... One of the beguiling charms of
Stone's narrative is the way in which his cool, understated prose
bursts from the page at piquant moments, especially when describing
the defects of political leaders of the 1960s and 1970s.... The
Atlantic and Its Enemies [is] a worthy addition to the essential
Cold War canon. Add it to your shelf." Pat Shipman, Professor of
Anthropology at the Pennsylvania State University and author of
Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari
"The Economist"
"[Stone] has a terrific eye for detail, bringing to life everything
from the ruins of Germany to Ronald Reagan's White House with a
wonderfully waspish turn of phrase.... He captures well the West's
weakness, as well as the seemingly powerful challenge that
eastern-style socialism posed to Western freedom."
Michael Burleigh, "Spectator"
"Sparkling....The book's importance is to remind us that the Cold
War was an active contest, whose outcome was by no means
certain....Stone has produced a powerful alternative to the Left
'liberal' reading of Cold War history, without sounding in the
least triumphalist."
"New Statesman""Stone's eye for the telling detail gives his
account of the cold war years an edge of authenticity lacking from
more conventional histories.... A beguiling mix of grand narrative
and autobiographical vignettes, "The Atlantic and its Enemies" is
the one book that anyone who wants to understand the cold war as it
developed must read.... [A] rich, exuberant and melancholy
book."
"Wall Street Journal""[Norman Stone] paints on a broad canvas,
showing how the Cold War unfolded.... The West is currently engaged
in a new sort of war, with radical Islam.... Meanwhile, the economy
of the developed world is more precarious than it was in the
darkest hours of the 1970s. Mr. Stone doesn't stop to address the
contemporary crisis, but "The Atlantic and Its Enemies" is an
inspiring reminder that the West has risen to meet such challenges
before, helped at crucial moments by bold leaders."
"Library Journal""Stone, one of Great Britain's most distinguished
historians, now offers his own assessment of the period between the
end of World War II and the fall of the Soviet Union.... [He]
bring[s] decades of erudition to his analysis; moreover, he lived
in Eastern Europe during part of the period under review and brings
that perspective to his work as well."
John Gray, "New Statesman" (London)
"Stone's eye for t
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