Preface: An Intellectual History -- The Origins and Nature of Old Thinking -- Leaders, Society, and Intellectuals During the Thaw -- Intellectuals and the World: From the Secret Speech to the Prague Spring -- The Dynamics of New Thinking in the Era of Stagnation -- Advance and Retreat: New Thinking in the Time of Crisis and Transition -- The New Thinking Comes to Power -- Conclusion: Reflections on the Origins and Fate of New Thinking
Summary
An intriguing ""intellectual portrait"" of a generation of Soviet reformers, this book is also a fascinating case study of how ideas can change the course of history. In most analyses of the Cold War's end the ideological aspects of Gorbachev's ""new thinking"" are treated largely as incidental to the broader considerations of power?as gloss on what was essentially a retreat forced by crisis and decline. Robert English makes a major contribution by demonstrating that Gorbachev's foreign policy was in fact the result of an intellectual revolution. English analyzes the rise of a liberal pol
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 345-373) and index