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Michael Dobbs

Goodreads Author

Born

in Belfast, The United Kingdom

Website

http://www.michaeldobbsbooks.com/index.html

Twitter

michaeldobbs

Genre

History, Biography, Historical Fiction

Influences

Barbara W. Tuchman, William Raymond Manchester, Edmund Morris ...more

Member Since

August 2012

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To distinguish myself from all the "presidential historians" out there, I have invented a new area of expertise: "presidential crisis historian." How a president confronts the gravest challenges of modern times, and how his decisions affect the rest of us, has been a recurring theme of my seven books.

One Minute to Midnight focused on possibly the gravest crisis ever, in October 1962, when John F. Kennedy stepped back from the nuclear brink at the last possible moment. The Unwanted looked at Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the Jewish refugee crisis that preceded the Holocaust. Six Months in 1945 examined how FDR and Truman negotiated the perilous transition from World War to Cold War. My latest book, King Richard: An American Tragedy, rela To distinguish myself from all the "presidential historians" out there, I have invented a new area of expertise: "presidential crisis historian." How a president confronts the gravest challenges of modern times, and how his decisions affect the rest of us, has been a recurring theme of my seven books.

One Minute to Midnight focused on possibly the gravest crisis ever, in October 1962, when John F. Kennedy stepped back from the nuclear brink at the last possible moment. The Unwanted looked at Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the Jewish refugee crisis that preceded the Holocaust. Six Months in 1945 examined how FDR and Truman negotiated the perilous transition from World War to Cold War. My latest book, King Richard: An American Tragedy, relates the Shakespearean tale of the self-made man who scrambled his way to the top only to see his dreams turn to nightmares because of tragic character flaws.

Before becoming an author, I was a journalist and foreign correspondent. After a stint in Rome as a correspondent for Reuters, and a tour of Africa, I lived in Yugoslavia during the twilight years of Marshal Tito. I moved to Poland for The Washington Post just in time to witness the extraordinary spectacle of workers rebelling against the "workers' state." I was the first western reporter to visit the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk in August 1980. As The Post's bureau chief in Moscow, I was standing in front of Boris Yeltsin in August 1991 when he climbed on a tank to face down Communist hardliners. In between these two events, I covered the imposition of martial law in Poland, the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, Gorbachev-Reagan summits, the Tiananmen uprising in China, and the 1989 revolution in Romania.

In addition to my work as a journalist and a historian, I have taught courses at the universities of Princeton, Michigan, and Georgetown, as well as American University. I also spent seven years at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum where I organized conferences on the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia, and researched and wrote The Unwanted. King Richard is my seventh book.
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Average rating: 4.21 · 8,524 ratings · 940 reviews · 8 distinct works • Similar authors

	One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War 4.24 avg rating — 4,617 ratings — published 2008 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	King Richard: Nixon and Watergate — An American Tragedy 4.24 avg rating — 1,450 ratings — published 2021	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Six Months in 1945: FDR, Stalin, Churchill, and Truman. From World War to Cold War 4.15 avg rating — 1,208 ratings — published 2012 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire 4.27 avg rating — 434 ratings — published 1996 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught In Between 4.23 avg rating — 418 ratings — published 2019 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on America 3.91 avg rating — 355 ratings — published 2004 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Madeleine Albright: A Twentieth-Century Odyssey 3.72 avg rating — 64 ratings — published 1999 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Six Minute War: Reagan, Russia, and the Race to Automate Armageddon liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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George Orwell and the War on Truth

I just finished "Homage to Catalonia," George Orwell's account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, fighting on the Republican side. I earlier read another Spanish Civil War classic, "For Whom the Bell Tolls," by Ernest Hemingway. What impressed me about both these books--and what has given them their enduring value--is the willingness of both authors to include details and stories that Read more of this blog post »

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Series by Michael Dobbs

Cold War Trilogy (3 books)
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Michael Dobbs (Goodreads Author)

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Maigret and the Minister (Inspector Maigret #46)

by Georges Simenon

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Oct 20, 2024 05:31PM

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American Dirt

by Jeanine Cummins (Goodreads Author)

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Pietr the Latvian (Inspector Maigret, #1)

by Georges Simenon

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Mar 30, 2024 01:50PM

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Michael Dobbs is currently reading Maigret and the Minister (Inspector Maigret #46) by Georges Simenon	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Quotes by Michael Dobbs (?)

“The most enduring lesson of the Cuban missile crisis is that, in a world with nuclear weapons, a classic military victory is an illusion. Communism was not defeated militarily; it was defeated economically, culturally, and ideologically. Khrushchev’s successors were unable to provide their own people with a basic level of material prosperity and spiritual fulfillment. They lost the war of ideas. In the end, as I have argued in Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire, communism defeated itself.”
― Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight

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“Communism was not defeated by any one individual or even a combination of individuals. In the last resort communism defeated itself.”
― Michael Dobbs, Maha suur vend

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“The closest contact they had with the enemy was a playful sign that boasted: “Worldwide delivery in 30 minutes or less—or your next one is free.” Nuclear apocalypse was as mundane as delivering pizza.”
― Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight

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Polls

What work of non-fiction do you want to read with the group in June 2017?

Six Months in 1945: FDR, Stalin, Churchill, and Truman--from World War to Cold War by Michael Dobbs

7 votes, 58.3%

Fordlandia by Greg Grandin

5 votes, 41.7%

Titanic: Minute by Minute by Jonathan Mayo

0 votes, 0.0%

12 total votes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The History Book ...: 5. Presidential Series: PASSAGE OF POWER ~~ Oct. 15th ~ Oct. 21st ~~ Chapter EIGHT (199 - 250); No Spoilers Please	49	26	Oct 19, 2012 03:40PM
Mount TBR Reading...: GeeVee's 2012 Challenge	124	47	Nov 09, 2012 07:02AM
The History Book ...: BRYAN CRAIG'S 50 BOOKS READ IN 2012	35	100	Dec 17, 2012 07:28AM
The History Book ...: CRAIG'S 50 BOOKS READ IN 2012	92	249	Jan 01, 2013 07:41AM
Reading with Style: Spring 2013 20.8 - Joanna's task - Presidentially	21	36	Mar 07, 2013 10:57AM
The History Book ...: SECOND WORLD WAR - THE LIBERATION TRILOGY - GLOSSARY - PART ONE ~ (SPOILER THREAD)	153	273	Jun 03, 2013 07:00PM
The History Book ...: JEROME'S 50 BOOKS READ IN 2016	251	228	Jan 01, 2017 08:46AM
Bright Young Things: Six months in 1945: FDR, Stalin, Churchill & Truman -- From World War to Cold War by Michael Dobbs (June 2017)	12	15	Jul 02, 2017 02:09PM

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