• The author's previous book The Gorbachev Factor (OUP, 1996) won the W.J.M. Mackenzie Prize of the Political Studies Association of the UK for best political science book of the year and the Alec Nove Prize of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies for the best book or article on Communism, Post-Communism or Russia.
• A major new interpretation of one of the key moments in 20th century history
• written by the first Western scholar to highlight the potential importance of Mikhail Gorbachev

Readership: Scholars and students of International Relations, Democratization, Comparative Politics, Russian Studies, East European Studies, World history: postwar, from c 1945.

"...the book will encourage readers to revive their memories of the excitement of the Gorbachev years and to refine their own opinions on the man himself and his policies." - Paul Dukes History Today

Part 1
1: Introduction
Part 2
2: Gorbachev: New Man in the Kremlin
3: The First Phase of Soviet Reform, 1985-86
4: Fundamental Political Change, 1987-89
5: Reconstructing the Soviet Political System
Part 3
6: Institutional Amphibiousness or Civil Society? The Origins and Development of Perestroika
7: The Dismantling of the System and the Disintegration of the State
8: Transnational Influences in the Transition from Communism
9: Ending the Cold War
10: Gorbachev and His Era in Perspective
Index