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.