Description
Book SynopsisThis title invites us to eavesdrop on an intimate conversation between one of the major political figures of the 20th century and his closest friend as they chat about the momentous events they lived through and helped orchestrate.
Trade ReviewAn extraordinary transcription (and translation) of three blunt and probing conversations during the early 1990s between two old friends. Booklist A significant historical document... Journal of Democracy A timely and important book... An unusually candid and revealing dialogue between Gorbachev and Zdenek Mlynar. -- Robert D. English The Nation Gorbachev adds enough beyond what he has already written to offer valuable insight to his intellectual evolution, down to and including his conception of socialism. Foreign Affairs This books reminds us of [Gorbachev's] accidental greatness and his greatness of character... It reveals an argumentative, insightful and tenacious political frienship which did not end in betrayal. -- John Lloyd Times Literary Supplement
Table of ContentsConversation One: The Criss-Crossing of Our Paths 1. Student Communists 2. New Hopes and New Disappointments 3. Twenty Years, Divergent Paths Conversation Two: How We Sought to Reinvigorate Socialism 1. the Prague Spring and Its Defeat 2. More Democracy, More Socialism 3. Freedom of Choice Either Exists or It Doesn't 4. An Airplane That Took Off Without Knowing Where to Land 5. What to Do With the Party? 6. Can the Use of Force "Save Socialism"? Conversation Three: There's Only One World 1. Breaking Out of the Dead End of the Cold War 2. Socialism Is Alive as a World Process 3. At a Crossroads of Civilization Concluding Thoughts: The Conscience of the Reformer
