WouldYou Believe. . . When the Helsinki Accords were signed on August 1, 1975, thelikelihood they would have a profound and lasting impact on the world were verysmall. Which is why a book about them after a half century is both surprisinglytopical and well worth reading for anyone with an interest in modern history. Thethirty-five signatories were the nations of Europe, the United States andCanada at was formally known as the Conference of Security and Cooperation inEurope. The Final Act of CSCE contained detailed provisions on respect forhuman rights and set country borders that essentially held until Russia invadedUkraine in February,2022. Only15 years after the summit signing, the Soviet Union imploded and its EasternEuropean satellites broke with Communism and the broad range of human rightsissues -civil, social, economic, and political - were a major factor in thishistoric turning point. PeterL.W. Osnos' expertise on the history of the accords is vast, as a journalistand publisher. His narrative writing skill is widely recognized. Holly Cartner provides a vivid account of howa small organization called Helsinki Watch became Human Rights Watch, the most importantglobal NGO in its field.

In more than five decades as a reporter, editor and publisher, Peter Osnos has had an especially good view of momentous events and relationships with some of the most influential personalities of our time. As a young journalist for I.F. Stone's Weekly, one of the leading publications of the turbulent 1960s and in 18 years at The Washington Post , he covered the war in Vietnam and Cambodia, the Soviet Union at the height of Kremlin power, Washington D.C. as National Editor, "Swinging London" in the 60s and Thatcher's Britain in the 1980s. At Random House and the company he founded, PublicAffairs, he was responsible for books by four presidents -Carter, Clinton, Obama and Trump; celebrated Washington figures including Robert McNamara, House Speaker Tip O'Neill and Vernon Jordan, first ladies Rosalynn Carter and Nancy Reagan, the billionaire George Soros, basketball superstars Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Magic Johnson, legendary spies, political dissidents and the writers, Molly Ivins and Peggy Noonan, among many others. In this unusually wide-ranging memoir, Osnos uses a reporter's skills to portray historic events and encounters beginning with his parents' extraordinary World War II experiences escaping Europe to India, where he was born, to the present day. He shares unique portraits of the famous people he worked with and an insider's perspective of the news and publishing businesses. As he charts the evolution of his career and recent history, he also explores the influence and impact of family, character, curiosity, luck, resilience, a well-pressed suit and some unexpected wrinkles. Also featuring a "virtual attic" of photographs, documents and video at anespeciallygoodview.com.