When the World Seemed New: George H. W. Bush and the End of the Cold War

Shortlisted for the Council on Foreign Relations’ Arthur Ross Book Award

  "At one of the great turning points in modern history, America and the Free World (the phrase meant more then) were fortunate to be led by a president, George H.W. Bush, who is only now receiving his due. In this epic book, Jeffrey A. Engel explains how Bush presided over the momentous conclusion of the Cold War. With searching scholarship, a gift for the telling human detail, and an appreciation of how the personal and the political interact in often-subtle ways, Engel has written a landmark account of a president, a nation, and a global order at a crossroads. This is a terrific work of history." —Jon Meacham, author of Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush   “Usually, when empires fall, war and chaos follow. Amazingly, when the Soviet Union--with its 20,000 or so nuclear weapons--collapsed, the world became (for a time, anyway) more peaceful and prosperous, thanks in no small part to the wisdom, vision, and restraint of President George H.W. Bush. Jeffrey Engel has written a rich, marvelous narrative history stocked with lessons for our own dangerous times." —Evan Thomas, author of Ike's Bluff and Being Nixon   “The Cold War’s end offered peril and promise, and Jeffrey A. Engel’s revealing and deeply researched new history demonstrates that George H.W. Bush navigated it brilliantly.  Instability loomed.  Yet Bush’s personal diplomacy ensured Germany’s successful unification, the Soviet Union’s peaceful collapse, victory in the Persian Gulf, and preservation of Sino-American relations after the horror of Tiananmen Square.  His reputation as a statesman has rightly grown over time.  Peering into the halls of power on both sides of the Iron Curtain and in the Oval Office in particular, Engel’s gripping account show us why.” —Stephen Hadley, former National Security Advisor “Engel's excellent history forms a standing – if unspoken – rebuke to the retrograde nationalism espoused by Donald J. Trump.” –New York Times Book Review    “When the World Seemed New is a fine, often stirring account of these times...an absorbing book.” –Wall Street Journal

"These diary entries [are] compulsive reading ... Engel's exemplary notes and interpretative essay add to the volume's readability and scholarly value." — Foreign Affairs (on China Diary) "Bush's year in China laid the foundations for the pragmatic, prudent, personal foreign policy that would characterize his presidency. With superb annotations and analysis by Jeffrey Engel ... Bush's daily diary sheds light not only on 'the making of a global president' but on two nations in transition." — Baltimore Sun (on China Diary) "With a cast of colorful characters ... and acute glimpses into how things worked in postwar Washington, this chronicle of an intense commercial struggle gives readers a fascinating glimpse into a forgotten cranny of history." — Atlantic (on Cold War at 30,000 Feet)

"These diary entries [are] compulsive reading ... Engel's exemplary notes and interpretative essay add to the volume's readability and scholarly value."

—Foreign Affairs (on China Diary) "Bush's year in China laid the foundations for the pragmatic, prudent, personal foreign policy that would characterize his presidency. With superb annotations and analysis by Jeffrey Engel ... Bush's daily diary sheds light not only on 'the making of a global president' but on two nations in transition." —Baltimore Sun (on China Diary) "With a cast of colorful characters ... and acute glimpses into how things worked in postwar Washington, this chronicle of an intense commercial struggle gives readers a fascinating glimpse into a forgotten cranny of history." —Atlantic (on Cold War at 30,000 Feet)

"At one of the great turning points in modern history, America and the Free World (the phrase meant more then) were fortunate to be led by a president, George H.W. Bush, who is only now receiving his due. In this epic book, Jeffrey A. Engel explains how Bush presided over the momentous conclusion of the Cold War. With searching scholarship, a gift for the telling human detail, and an appreciation of how the personal and the political interact in often-subtle ways, Engel has written a landmark account of a president, a nation, and a global order at a crossroads. This is a terrific work of history." -- Jon Meacham, author of Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush

“Usually, when empires fall, war and chaos follow. Amazingly, when the Soviet Union--with its 20,000 or so nuclear weapons--collapsed, the world became (for a time, anyway) more peaceful and prosperous, thanks in no small part to the wisdom, vision, and restraint of President George H.W. Bush. Jeffrey Engel has written a rich, marvelous narrative history stocked with lessons for our own dangerous times." -- Evan Thomas, author of Ike's Bluff and Being Nixon.   “The Cold War’s end offered peril and promise, and Jeffrey A. Engel’s revealing and deeply researched new history demonstrates that George H.W. Bush navigated it brilliantly.  Instability loomed.  Yet Bush’s personal diplomacy ensured Germany’s successful unification, the Soviet Union’s peaceful collapse, victory in the Persian Gulf, and preservation of Sino-American relations after the horror of Tiananmen Square.  His reputation as a statesman has rightly grown over time.  Peering into the halls of power on both sides of the Iron Curtain and in the Oval Office in particular, Engel’s gripping account show us why.” -- Stephen Hadley, former National Security Advisor