Richard Cohen – författare

This book, first published in 1990, evaluates what future policy adjustments the US will have to make in order to successfully navigate through a national security environment radically altered from that of the past and one determined more than at any point in the post-war period by the economic performance of both superpowers. The structure of the book centres around two issues that will determine the future national security environment facing the US. Discussed are stakes of the threat, the response of the Soviet Union to the challenge of economic and related social/political decline and its implications for the Soviet national defence effort. Also studied are the resources available to the US to meet the threat, the status of the US economic performance and the magnitude of resource stress it is likely to face in the future and its probable impact on the US national defence effort.

This book, first published in 1990, evaluates what future policy adjustments the US will have to make in order to successfully navigate through a national security environment radically altered from that of the past and one determined more than at any point in the post-war period by the economic performance of both superpowers. The structure of the book centres around two issues that will determine the future national security environment facing the US. Discussed are stakes of the threat, the response of the Soviet Union to the challenge of economic and related social/political decline and its implications for the Soviet national defence effort. Also studied are the resources available to the US to meet the threat, the status of the US economic performance and the magnitude of resource stress it is likely to face in the future and its probable impact on the US national defence effort.

''A huge, fizzing omnium-gatherum of a book . . . marvellous'' Daily Telegraph''Witty, wise and elegant . . . a classic of history itself'' The Spectator''Grave and witty, suave yet pointed . . . full of energy'' Hilary Mantel''An enthralling investigation . . . consistently entertaining'' The Times''Epic . . . whatever Cohen writes about he writes about with brio'' New YorkerWho writes the past? And how do the biases of storytellers - whether Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare or Simon Schama - influence our ideas about history today?Epic, authoritative and entertaining, Making History delves into the lives of those who have charted human history - professional historians, witnesses, novelists, journalists and propagandists - to discover the agendas that informed their world views, and which in so many ways have informed ours. From the origins of history-writing through to television and the digital age, Making History abounds in captivating figures brought to vivid life, from Thucydides and Tacitus to Voltaire and Gibbon, from Winston Churchill to Mary Beard. Rich in character, complex truths and surprising anecdotes, the result is a unique exploration of both the aims and craft of history-making that will lead us to think anew about our past and ourselves.

In the grand tradition of the scholar-adventurer, acclaimed author Richard Cohen takes us around the world to illuminate our relationship with the star that gives us life. Drawing on more than seven years of research, he reports from locations in eighteen different countries. As he soon discovers, the Sun is present everywhere—in mythology, language, religion, politics, sciences, art, literature, and medicine, even in the ocean’s depths. For some ancient worshippers, our star was a man abandoned by his spouse because his brightness made her weary. The early Christians appropriated the Sun’s imagery, with the cross becoming an emblem of the star and its rays, and the halo a variation of that. Einstein helped replicate the Sun’s power to create the atomic bomb, while Richard Wagner had Tristan inveigh against daylight as the enemy of romantic love. In this splendidly illustrated volume packed with captivating facts, extraordinary myths, and surprising anecdotes, Cohen not only explains the star that so inspires us, but shows how multifacted our relationship with it has been—and continues to be.