Ash, Timothy Garton. The Polish Revolution: Solidarity, 3d ed. 2002. A definitive account of the role of the Solidarity movement in the Polish revolution and its subsequent fate.

Beck, Roger B. The History of South Africa. 2000. Introduction to South African history with emphasis on the twentieth century.

Buchenau, Jurgen. Mexican Mosaic: A Brief History of Mexico. 2012. A concise but rich look at modern Mexico.

Constable, Pamela, and Arturo Valenzuela. A Nation of Enemies: Chile Under Pinochet. 1993. An elegantly written examination of Chile under socialism and dictatorship.

Dávila, Jerry. Dictatorship in South America. 2013. Examines the experiences with dictatorship, development, and democracy in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.

Dobbs, Michael. Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire. 1997. A superb account by a journalist who covered eastern Europe.

Guha, Ramachandra. India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy. 2007. In-depth study of the last sixty years of Indian history and development.

Hughes, H. Stuart. Sophisticated Rebels: The Political Culture of European Dissent, 1968–1987. 1988. Provocatively analyzes the culture and politics of protest in Europe.

Jayakar, Pupul. Indira Gandhi: An Intimate Biography. 1993. Very readable narrative of the powerful and controversial Indian prime minister.

Judt, Tony. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. 2006. A broad and insightful reading of reconstruction, the Cold War, and unification.

Kapuscinski, Ryszard. Another Day of Life. 2001. An account by a renowned Polish journalist of the South African invasion of Angola and the Cuban intervention.

Kingston, Jeffrey. Japan’s Quiet Transformation: Social Change and Civil Society in the 21st Century. 2004. A leading scholar considers Japan’s economic problems in the 1990s and their effects on Japanese politics and society.

Lampe, J. Yugoslavia as History: Twice There Was a Country, 2d ed. 2000. Judiciously and insightfully considers the history and violent collapse of Yugoslavia.

Mahbubani, Kishore. The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East. 2008. A history and analysis of the rise of Asia in world politics and economics by one of Asia’s leading intellectuals.

Maxwell, Kenneth. The Making of Portuguese Democracy. 1997. Examines the end of the Salazar dictatorship, decolonization, and democratization.

McCann, Bryan. The Throes of Democracy: Brazil Since 1989. 2008. A rich overview of the Brazilian experience of redemocratization.

Urwin, Derek W. The Community of Europe: A History of European Integration Since 1945, 2d ed. 1995. Eloquent history of all aspects of European attempts at economic and political union since 1945.

Wapshott, Nicholas. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage. 2007. Particularly good analysis of their policies of economic conservatism and anticommunism in the 1980s.