Mary Elise Sarotte

Mary Elise Sarotte

Professor

Johns Hopkins Univ., School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Washington DC, United States

Professor Mary Elise Sarotte has authored five books and co-edited a sixth. Her most recent book, Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate, was shortlisted for both the Cundill History Prize and the Duke of Wellington History Medal;received the Arthur Ross Prize Silver Medal;won the Pushkin House Prize for Best Non-Fiction Book on Russia;and is now appearing in multiple European and Asian countries, including a best-selling updated version for German-speakers. One of her earlier books, The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall, became an Economist, Financial Times, and BBC History Book of the Year. Its predecessor, 1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe—also a Financial Times Book of the Year—won both the Ferrell History Prize and the Shulman Prize for best book on Soviet foreign relations. Sarotte received her AB in History and Science from Harvard and her PhD in European History from Yale. She went on to earn tenure at the University of Cambridge before returning to the States to become a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Dean’s Professor of History at the University of Southern California, and, subsequently, the Kravis Professor of Historical Studies at Johns Hopkins (her current position). In academic year 2024-5 she is working on a new book at the Belfer Center and Center for European Studies, both at Harvard University.