Start by marking “The Cold War: A New History” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. An easy read and a good introduction for further exploration into events and the people that made up a significant part of our modern history. I found a review of this book in the NYRof Books by Tony Judt and was relieved to see that quite a few of my objections were articulated very well by Judt. This was a fantastic book, because of the analytic views and the synthesis. Youths throughout history had often wished question their elders values. It's pacy and readable, but perhaps he's playing to the gallery too much. There would be no middle ground between no war and total war, a stark choice that Winston Churchill saw as a kind of guarantee. List Price: 27.95* * Individual store prices may vary. In 1956 and 1968, Russian tanks crushed uprisings in Budapest and Prague. Eisenhower, "at once the most subtle and brutal strategist of the nuclear age," rejected the concept of a limited nuclear war, reasoning, with a general's firsthand understanding of battle, that fear would overrule reason once nuclear weapons came into play. Few history experts took the time to deal with or to speak about the events as they happened. Some people love books. And I am sure that it serves its purpose but I was put off by it. Leaving most indivduals wondering about the development of the war. The author applies a revisionist methodology to unveil the main events and conclusions. It explains, in layman's terms, the significance of the roles played by the Catholic church, the trade unions in Poland, the stagnation of the politburo, the influence of Gorbachev and the groundswell of grass routes opinion that led to what Gaddis suggests was the inevitable failure of Communism. In his one-volume-book "The Cold War: A New History," John Lewis Gaddis examines the dynamics of the political conflicts that dominated the world from the end of World War II to the late 1980s. Preface. The Cold War A New History. I thought this was ok. "The world, I am quite sure, is a better place for that conflict having been fought in the way that it was and won by the side that won it," he writes. “The sign of a good novel is what it can cause its reader to see, even if this lies beyond the author's … He organizes his materials more or less chronologically, but focuses on idea and concepts and people more than chronology. If there was one book you would need to understand the cold war, this is it. Reviewed by Reviewed by William Grimes. Reviews There are no reviews yet. “Stalin’s postwar goals were security for himself, his regime, his country, and his ideology, in precisely that order.”, “Enrollments in American colleges tripled between 1955 and 1970, 250% in the Soviet Union, 400% in France, and more than 200% in China by 1965. The cold war: how it began, why it ended. Start studying The Cold War: A New History. Topics _ Collection opensource Language English _ Addeddate 2019-11-29 12:01:44 Identifier thecoldwaranewhistory Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t7bs6wp0r Ocr ABBYY FineReader 11.0 (Extended OCR) Ppi 600 Scanner Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.6.4. plus-circle Add Review. Certainly it is a comprehensive but shortish history of the Cold War. Most contemporary university students – such as myself – were not born when the Cold War ended, the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Striking is the importance accorded to the protagonists of the 80-ies, less attention to the structural backgrounds. The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and the United States and their respective allies, the Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc, after World War II.Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but the period is generally considered to span the 1947 Truman Doctrine to the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union. The United States, after showing itself to be a reluctant actor on the world stage, was determined to play a more active role in securing Western Europe's future and, by bolstering democracies and free markets, to protect its own. World politics — 1945-1989. Gaddis starts with a surprisingly optimistic premise. As opposed to many other works of history that I have read, Gaddis' book provides a clear look at each situation occurring to a certain point before moving along the timeline. It's pacy and readable, but perhaps he's playing to the gallery too much. In such a light the limitations of the view adopted by Gaddis come to light. IN 1991, as the Soviet Union was cracking up, one of President George H. … Why did Lewis write the book, and who was his intended audience? Now, with university educations, their elders had handed them the training to do so. … My views on this piece are really mixed. Some people fall in love. Sorry for the spoilers. The Cold War was over. This is a surprisingly moving little book on the Cold War by its foremost historian. In June 1950, the first military action of the Cold War began when the Soviet-backed North Korean People’s Army invaded its pro-Western neighbor to … The Oxford Handbook of the Cold War offers a broad reassessment of the period war based on new conceptual frameworks developed in the field of international history. By the 1950s, two superpowers, bristling with nuclear weapons, stared unblinking across an ideological divide, and the rest of the world trembled. THE NEW COLD WAR HISTORY By John Lewis Gaddis. It waged only one war, but it was arguably the most terrible one in all of history. The Cold War once looked like an equal battle between two military giants, with lesser nations of the world reduced to the role of helpless bystanders. THE NEW COLD WAR HISTORY By John Lewis Gaddis Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Yale historian John Lewis Gaddis wrote seminal books about the Cold War, during the Cold War. The Cold War was full of crises, none of them escalated to all-out war, and in this sense nuclear weapons were … The Cold War: A New History is a history book based on primary documents and materials. The Cold War: A New History. One of Gaddis major thesis is the importance of individuals in determining the both the origins and the end of the war. The author clearly admires that particular president, and his usually restrained prose waxes ebullient when President Reagan reaches the stage. The actors were Reagan, Thatcher, Deng Xiaoping, Lech Walęsa, Pope John Paul II ( whom he refers to as Karol Wojtyla throughout) Vąclav Havel, "even Boris Yeltsin" (whom Gaddis doesn't exactly like) who cut through policies and procedures and spoke directly to the people about change. Very clear and concise! Second, there is a lot he leaves out. I thought I was going to like this a lot more than I did. The Cold War: A New History is an eminently readable account of the Cold War that places it in a larger historical, ideological, and strategic context. See what's new with book lending at the Internet Archive. If you're alive today, you should probably read this book so that you can understand where we're coming from. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. I was hoping to find a book that would treat the Cold War in a way comparable to McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" for the Civil War. His political lean. 10 Reviews. This is in many ways a good short synthesis of a very broad topic. The new evidence which were used for this book also sheds new light on some of the incidents during the cold war years which made the book even more interesting of a read. The Penguin Press. Karl Marx believed that history is determined by forces beyond man’s control. Both sides operated from perfectly reasonable premises, given their experiences in World War II. Cold War. — Groucho Marx. Browse All Books See All Series This series focuses on new interpretations of the Cold War era made possible by the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the opening of Soviet, East European, Chinese, and other archives to scholars. 1. Here there’s yet a third new insight into Cold War history: it is that nuclear weapons stabilized but probably also prolonged that conflict. I listened to this one and I think I need to listen to it twice. Leaving most indivduals wondering about the development of the war. The result is a book that is engaging, interesting, and rarely feels like a "history book". The Cold War: A New History by John Lewis Gaddis The Cold War: A New History by John Lewis Gaddis has been celebrated as a short but comprehensive account of the long struggle between two world powers of the time – the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Gaddis hasn't avoided all these pitfalls, but it's an excellent effort, and most important for his target audience, the book is eminently readable. The Cold War : a new history. The closing account of events on the Hungarian border and within the Warsaw Pact were, for me, a revelation. In this new book, he offers a succinct, crisply argued account of the Cold War that draws on his previous work and synthesizes the mountain of archival material that began appearing in … John Lewis Gaddis (born 1941) is the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University. Every month our team sorts through... To see what your friends thought of this book, You are looking fine to gain help about question that you laid out, it's true that these two metropolitan national powerful have vast features which m, You are looking fine to gain help about question that you laid out, it's true that these two metropolitan national powerful have vast features which make the difference between us a and ussr,the variety in national ideology such as socialism applied by ussr different from capitalism implemented by USA moreover the clash gap founded during the 1 and 2 world wars as source that spreadsheet antagonist against them and actually we turn back to the role played by these nations for decolonatio developing countries affected a lot through open door policy from marshal ah plan aimed to control colonies from the one's influence to the end spread up wall block between them, To say this book is bad would be a little unfair, though it does seem to rely on the reader being ignorant and gullible, however I did find it surprisingly ungood particularly considering his earlier book, [ though that seems to me to be far too optimistic about the capabilities of Soviet missiles, [ but not the Kennedy assassination, though the failed attempts on the lives of Reagan and J-P. II are so important to the course of the Cold War that they have to be mentioned, but not the failed attempt on the life of Thatcher even though the terrorist Freedom Fighters involved in that were getting weapons, indirectly no doubt, from Warsaw Pact countries, [ doubtless all enjoying watching 'Birth of a Nation' and fantasising about the knights of the South in their free time too, [ but as above if they died as a result they were non-Americans and so don't count, [ or less depending on your point of view, [ due to over enthusiastic rattling of security fencing at American airbases, [ the extent to which American Brown bears had been infiltrated by Marxist-Leninist thinking remains sadly under explored despite the evidence of Yogi Bear and his televised efforts to appropriate the picnic baskets of the bourgeoisie, If you asked the 10 best historians in the world to write a history of the Cold War in under 250 pages, you would get back 10 works that were overly broad, sweeping, slanted, and/or missing key facts. Although not an exhaustively detailed account of the Cold War and the surrounding conflicts, it gives wonderful snapshots of key events surrounding the conflict, and lays a very helpful springboard to go off of into more detailed readings. Few history experts took the time to deal with or to speak about the events as they happened. A. The individual chapters in this volume evaluate both the extent and the limits of the cold war's reach in world history. The Cold War: A New History is an analysis of the events that took place during the Cold War. Learned so much from it. I was hoping to find a book that would treat the Cold War in a way comparable to McPherson's "Battle Cry of Freedom" for the Civil War. Five Stars. Hardcover. If events in Cuba and Indochina gave Washington fits, Soviet leaders were stymied by North Korea and driven to the point of apoplexy by Mao, who would traumatize Khrushchev by casually commenting that war with the United States might be an excellent idea. During this frightening period, different presidents served for the American people and each president felt the war carried a lot of dangers. Welcome back. Inside a dog, it’s too dark to read.” While the Cold War was going on it was hard to He devotes a lot of space to the era's and achievments of Nixon and Reagan, and not much to Kennedy and Carter, and he portrays all the Soviet leaders as thick, cruel and hateful until Gorbachev. The Cold War was much more rational than previously thought, he writes, despite its manifest absurdities, first and foremost the race to develop weapons that, almost by definition, could never be used. In a sense, this book is like an organized forum of correspondents who are allowed to discuss what happened within the particular arena of their findings from this vital historical account. Gaddis writes, "What governments failed to foresee was that more young people, plus, more education, when combined with a stalemated Cold War, could be a prescription for insurrection. Nearing the 25th anniversary of its end, the cold war now emerges as a distinct period in twentieth-century history, yet one which should be evaluated within the broader context of global political, economic, social, and cultural developments. As US leaders strain to manage America's current overseas dilemmas, The Cold War: A New History by John … Both US and Soviet Union had been born in revolution and embraced ideologies with global aspirations: what worked at home, their leaders assumed would also do so for the rest of the world. [John Lewis Gaddis] Home. I didn't. Cold War scholar Gaddis fashions a short but comprehensive account of what JFK called our "long twilight struggle. A line drawing of the Internet Archive headquarters building façade. $27.95. This one doesn’t meet the most basic criteria of objective reporting of the facts. Most fascinating was the chapter called "Actors" which he means both literally and figuratively, i.e., the world personalities involved whom he saw as capable actors on the world stage, with a clearly articulated and easily understand. Intervention, they decided, was out of the question. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published In his book he categorized the Cold War as a necessary conflict that settled divisive world issues. In 1950, when Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh and Kim Il-Sung met in Moscow to … An excellent introductory book for new readers; clear, precise, great analysis and a must read for those who want to familiarize themselves with the Cold War. Those who are looking for a deep analysis will be dissapointed, it's not the goal of the book. It's major weakness, however, lies in it's Americentrisim, which I found often a bit hard to take and definitely colored my enjoyment of it. The Soviet Union, cashing in its chips after World War II, ruled half of Europe and commanded the unswerving loyalty of millions. During this frightening period, different presidents served for the American people and each president felt the war carried a lot of dangers. History is written by the winners. predict. This was beyond amazing! I found it extremely engaging, but it's not your typical "narrative" history. Search. Gaddis is also the official biographer of the seminal 20th-century American statesman George F. Kennan. I wished for more: this isn't a thousand-page magisterial opus, but a 250-page essay by a historian firmly in command of his craft and content to summarize the big conclusions of his life's study. The stage most basic criteria of objective reporting of the world as it was. ” behind the decisions of world! 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