The Cold War had seemed like a permanent fixture in global politics & until its denouement no Western or Soviet politician foresaw that the st&-off between the two superpowers
- after decades of struggle over every aspect of security politics economics & ideas
- would end in their lifetimes Even after March 1985 when Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union it was not preordained that global nuclear Armageddon could or would be averted peaceably But just four years later the Berlin Wall was dismantled & perestroika spread throughout the former Soviet bloc It was a sea change in world history which resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union Drawing on pioneering archival research Robert Service's gripping new investigation of the final years of the Cold War pinpoints the astonishing relationships among President Ronald Reagan & Mikhail Gorbachev Secretary of State George Shultz & the USSR's last Foreign Affairs Minister Eduard Shevardnadze who found a way to cooperate during times of extraordinary change around the world The story is of American pressure & Soviet long-term decline & over-stretch The End of the Cold War shows how that small skillful group of statesmen were determined to end the Cold War on their watch In the process they irreversibly transformed the global geopolitical landscape Authoritative compelling & meticulously researched this is political history at its best

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES PFD YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2017' Funny ambitious immensely humane & full of philosophical panache' Sunday Times' Extraordinary wildly impressive" Lucy Hughes-Hallett BBC Radio 4' Wholly original & hauntingly beautiful' Kirkus Sooner or later death visits everyone Before that they meet Charlie Charlie meets everyone
- but only once Sometimes he is sent as a courtesy sometimes as a warning Either way this is going to be the most important meeting of your life The End of the Day is the stunning new story from Claire North the voice behind the word-of-mouth bestseller The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August' Reaffirms the passion & ambition that have made North such a consistently intriguing writer' Locus' Every one of the chapters is shaped with philosophical panache' Guardian' Compelling keeps the surprises coming until the very end' San Francisco Chronicle
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' That's not my job' If you don't want your employees to say that why do you start your relationship by giving them a narrow task & competency focused description of their job? We need people to fulfil many different roles at work yes the need to do their job but they also need to contribute positive energy collaborate & take personal reasonability for innovation & personal development How do they fit into a traditional job description? It is futile persevering with the job description borne out of the scientific management movement one hundred years ago The world of work is vastly different to the assembly lines of the Ford Motor Company of the early twentieth-century Building on the phenomenal success of The End of the Performance Review Baker examines four essential ' Non-Job' roles that all employees must fulfil & shows how to create meaningful role descriptions that can help you recruit better people & enable them to deliver better results ...

No civilization no matter how mighty it may appear to itself is indestructible'-Niall Ferguson We do not need to invent the world anew The international order established by the United States after World War II is in need of expansion & repair but not reconception'-Fareed Zakaria Fears of a globalized world are rampant Across the West borders are being reasserted & old alliances tested to their limits Could this be the end of the liberal order or will the major crises of the twenty-first century strengthen our resolve? ...

The Tour de France is always one of the sporting calendar's most spectacular & dramatic events But the 1998 Tour provided drama like no other As the opening stages in Ireland unfolded the Festina team's soigneur Willy Voet was arrested on the French-Belgian border with a car-load of drugs Raid after police raid followed with arrest after arrest hammering the Tour In protest there were riders' strikes & go-slows with several squads withdrawing en masse andone expelled By the time the Tour reached Paris just 96 of the 189 starters remained & of those 189 starters more than a quarter were later reported to have doped The 1998 Tour de Farce's' status as one of the most scandal-struck sporting events in history was confirmed Voet's arrest was just the beginning of sport's biggest mass doping controversy
- what became known as the Festina affair It all but destroyed professional cycling as the credibility of the entire sport was called into question & the cycling family began to split apart & yet ironically the 1998 Tour was also one of the best races in years The End of the Road is the first English-language book to provide in-depth analysis & a colourful evocation of the tumultuous events during the 1998 Tour Alasdair Fotheringham uncovers step by step how the world's biggest bike race sank into a nightmarish series of scandals that left the sport on its knees He explores its long-term consequences
- & what if any lessons were learned

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Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play When Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg The Social Network) joined acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel Sex Tape) on his book tour an epic five-day journey began As the two men share laughs & reveal hidden frailties they are forever bonded in this fascinating & ultimately heartbreaking story ...

The End of the World RPG Revolt of the Machines ...

The Number One Bestseller & featured on Simon Mayo's Radio 2 Book Club 'A real find' STEPHEN KINGTHE ULTIMATE RACE-AGAINST-TIME THRILLERWhen the world ends & you find yourself stranded on the wrong side of the country every second counts No one knows this more than Edgar Hill 550 miles away from his family he must push himself to the very limit to get back to them or risk losing them forever His best option is to run But what if your best isn't good enough? An original & powerful post-apocalyptic thriller perfect for fans of The Martian ...

An in-depth look at how to account for the human complexities at the heart of today's financial system Our economy may have recovered from the Great Recession--but not our economics In The End of Theory Richard Bookstaber discusses why the human condition & the radical uncertainty of our world renders the standard economic model--and the theory behind it--useless for dealing with financial crises What model should replace it? None At least not any version we've been using for the past two hundred years Instead Bookstaber argues for a new approach called agent-based economics one that takes as a starting point the fact that we are humans not the optimizing automatons that standard economics assumes we are Bookstaber's groundbreaking paradigm promises to do a far better job at preventing crises & managing those that break out As he explains our varied memories & imaginations color our economic behavior in unexpected hues Agent-based modeling embraces these nuances by avoiding the mechanistic unrealistic structure of our current economic approach Bookstaber tackles issues such as radical uncertainty when circumstances take place beyond our anticipation & emergence when innocent everyday interactions combine to create sudden chaos Starting with the realization that future crises cannot be predicted by the past he proposes an approach that recognizes the human narrative while addressing market realities Sweeping aside the historic failure of twentieth-century economics The End of Theory offers a novel & innovative perspective along with a more realistic & human framework to help prevent today's financial system from blowing up again ...

'A wonderful book about wonderful books & mothers & sons & the enduring braid between them'
- Mitch Albom author of Tuesdays With
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