Books like Revolutions and revolutionary movements by James DeFronzo

Using recently declassified Politburo records, ciphered telegrams, diaries & taped conversations, Zubok explores the origins of the superpowers' confrontation under Stalin, Khrushchev's contradictory & counter-productive attempts to ease tensions, & Brezhnev's passion for de tente.

Theda Skocpol shows how all three combine to explain the origins and accomplishments of social-revolutionary transformations.

Explains why revolution often leads to war, using case studies of the French, Russian, and Iranian revolutions.

"In The Collapse historian Mary Elise Sarette shows that the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, was not, as is commonly believed, the East German government's deliberate concession to outside influence. It was an accident. A carelessly worded memo written by mid-level bureaucrats, a bumbling press conference given by an inept member of the East German Politburo, the negligence of government leaders, the bravery of ordinary people in East and West Berlin--these combined to bring about the end of nearly forty years of oppression, fear, and enmity in divided Berlin. Drawing on evidence from archives in multiple countries and languages, along with dozens of interviews with key actors, The Collapse is the definitive account of the event that brought down the East German Politburo and came to represent the final collapse of the Cold War order"--