The Art Of The Deal

By Amber Nimocks,

Published February 23, 2011 at 11:42 AM EST

History has been shaped as much by the conversations and bargains that ended or avoided war as by war itself. In his new book, "Great Negotiations: Agreements that Changed the Modern World” (Westholme Publishing, 2010), author Fredrik Stanton tells the stories of eight feats of diplomacy. The book begins with Benjamin Franklin bluffing his way to the Franco-American Alliance in 1778 and ends with the faltering but fruitful summit between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik.

Amber Nimocks

Amber Nimocks came to The State of Things in January 2009. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a survivor of 15 years in the newspaper business. As a reporter and editor, her posts have included such exotic locales as her hometown of Fayetteville, Robeson County, Wilmington, Raleigh and Fort Worth, Texas.

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Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

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