The Foreign Service Journal, November 2004

Robert Pringle is an historian, journalist and diplo- mat with special interest in environmental issues, eth- nic minorities and conflict resolution. A retired FSO, he spent much of his career in Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. He has a doctor- ate in Southeast Asian history from Cornell University and lives in Alexandria, Va. Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended Jack F. Matlock Jr., Random House, 2004, $27.95, hardcover, 363 pages. Here is a unique eyewitness ac- count of the personal dynamics between the two world leaders who brought an end to the Cold War. It is an exceptional story that encompasses the vision of two men for change, high-level political bal- ancing acts, and traditional bureaucratic in-fighting between their closest advisers. The book has fresh insights, new judgments and new material — including, for instance, Reagan’s visceral hatred of nuclear weapons and his determination to find a way to rid the world of them, and the role of Sen. Edward Kennedy and former French President Francois Mitterrand in encouraging Gorbachev to deal with Reagan — to add to our under- standing of this key event in modern history. A veteran Foreign Service officer and respected expert on the Soviet Union, Jack F. Matlock served as principal adviser on Soviet and European affairs during the Reagan administration and later as the final U.S. ambassador to the USSR. He is the author of the authoritative Autopsy on an Empire: The American Ambassador’s Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union (1995). Reagan and Gorbachev has been nominated for the American Academy of Diplomacy’s 2004 Book Award. Shiraz in the Age of Hafez: The Glory of a Medieval Persian City John Limbert, University of Washington Press, 2004, $22.50, paperback, 182 pages. In the 14th century Shams al-Din Mohammad Hafez Shirazi composed an unequaled collection of lyric poet- ry that is still beloved today in Iran and among all lovers of great verse. The backdrop to Hafez’s work is the city of Shiraz, with its religious devo- tion, its flourishing of scholarship and arts, and its dead- ly political intrigues. This book presents the history of Shiraz, from its founding in the first century of Islam to its conquest by Amir Timur (Tamerlane) at the end of the 14th century, including a profile of its geography, its people, its administration and social organization. Ambassador John Limbert is president of the American Foreign Service Association. Fluent in Persian and Arabic, he was one of the first civilian offi- cials to enter Baghdad in April 2003, and served anoth- er tour of duty there in 2004. Before joining the Foreign Service, Limbert taught in Iran, both as a Peace Corps Volunteer and as an English instructor at Shiraz University. He holds the Department of State’s Award for Valor, received after spending 14 months as a hostage in Iran. He is the author of Iran: At War with History (1987). Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia David H. Shinn and Thomas P. Ofcansky, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2004, $95.00, hardcover, 633 pages. This reference work is a comprehensive source of authoritative information on the cultural, political, eco- nomic and historical dimensions of one of the world’s oldest countries that, with a population of 67 million people, is today the third-most populous country in Africa after Nigeria and Egypt. The book contains hundreds of entries, including, for instance, one for each of Ethiopia’s 85 ethnic groups. A 200-page bibli- ography organized by historical period and topic lists thousands of new and old source materials. David Shinn served in the Foreign Service for 37 years, many of them dealing with the Horn of Africa. He was U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia from 1996 to 1999. Thomas Ofcansky, currently with the State Department, has traveled widely throughout East Africa. He is the author of Paradise Lost: A History of Game Preservation in East Africa (2002). Uncle Sam in Barbary: A Diplomatic History Richard B. Parker, University Press of Florida, 2004, $59.95, hardcover, 316 pages. Uncle Sam in Barbary is the story of the young American republic’s first hostage crisis, and earliest encounter with Islam, which began in 1785 when Algerian corsairs — the Barbary pirates — captured F O C U S 28 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 4