Author Description

"Sixteen-year-old Richard Pipes escaped from Nazi-occupied Warsaw with his family in October 1939. Their flight took them to the United States by way of Italy, and Pipes went on to earn a college degree, join the U.S. Air Corps, serve as professor of Russian history at Harvard for nearly forty years, and become advisor to President Reagan on Soviet and Eastern European affairs. In this book, the eminent historian remembers the events of his own remarkable life as well as the unfolding of some of the twentieth century's most extraordinary political events." "Pipes shows us the inner workings of Harvard University during its Golden Age, discusses the nature of Soviet Communism during the Cold War years, and describes from an insider's perspective the conflicts within the Reagan administration over American policies toward the USSR. He offers portraits of such cultural and political figures as Isaiah Berlin, Ronald Reagan, and Alexander Haig, as well as unique observations on his Polish homeland, Jewish heritage, and the process of assimilation into American culture. Perhaps most interesting of all, Pipes depicts his evolution as a historian and his understanding of how history is witnessed and how it is recorded."--Jacket.