The Dead Hand: Reagan, Gorbachev and the Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race

(Paperback)

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WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE

The Dead Hand is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative history of Reagan, Gorbachev and the final decade of the Cold War. Washington Post journalist David E. Hoffman draws on exclusive interviews in both Russia and the US, as well as classified documents from deep inside the Kremlin, piecing together the first full - and intensely dramatic - account of how the US/Soviet arms race came to a close, and revealing the previously unheralded collection of scientists, soldiers, diplomats and spies that made it happen.

'A stunning feat of research and narrative. Terrifying.' - John le Carre

'Authoritative and chilling ... The Dead Hand is deadly serious, but this story can verge on pitch-black comedy - Dr. Strangelove as updated by the Coen Brothers.' - New York Times

Reviews

''A stunning feat of research and narrative. Terrifying.'' - John le Carre

''Authoritative and chilling ... a readable, many-tentacled account of the decades-long military standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union ... The Dead Hand is deadly serious, but this story can verge on pitch-black comedy - Dr. Strangelove as updated by the Coen Brothers.'' - New York Times

'''The Dead Hand' is a brilliant work of history, a richly detailed, gripping tale that takes us inside the Cold War arms race as no other book has...a story so riveting and scary that you feel like you are reading a fictional thriller.'' - Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of 'Imperial Life in the Emerald City'

''An extraordinary achievement.'' - Sir Michael Dobbs

''This is a tour de force of investigative history.'' - Steve Coll

''A thought-provoking book which reads like a thriller. A gripping chronicle of the second half of the last century and a brilliant analysis of the single strategic conflict that more than any other shaped today's world.'' - Gordon Thomas, author of 'Inside British Intelligence and Gideon's Spies'

Author Bio

David Hoffman is a contributing editor at the Washington Post, where he previously served as White House correspondent, Moscow bureau chief, and assistant managing editor for foreign news.