The Cold War : a new history / John Lewis Gaddis.
Material type: TextPublication details: New York : Penguin Press, 2005.Description: xii, 333 p. : ill.; 25 cmISBN:- 0143038273 (pbk.)
- 1594200629 (hardcover)
- 9780143038276 (pbk.)
- 9781594200625 (hardcover)
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book | Main Library | NonFiction | 909.825 G123 | Available | 33111005394032 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
"Outstanding . . . The most accessible distillation of that conflict yet written." -- The Boston Globe
"Energetically written and lucid, it makes an ideal introduction to the subject." -- The New York Times
The "dean of Cold War historians" ( The New York Times ) now presents the definitive account of the global confrontation that dominated the last half of the twentieth century. Drawing on newly opened archives and the reminiscences of the major players, John Lewis Gaddis explains not just what happened but why --from the months in 1945 when the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. went from alliance to antagonism to the barely averted holocaust of the Cuban Missile Crisis to the maneuvers of Nixon and Mao, Reagan and Gorbachev. Brilliant, accessible, almost Shakespearean in its drama, The Cold War stands as a triumphant summation of the era that, more than any other, shaped our own.
Gaddis is also the author of On Grand Strategy.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [299]-314) and index.
The return of fear -- Deathboats and lifeboats -- Command versus spontaneity -- The emergence of autonomy -- The recovery of equity -- Actors -- The triumph of hope.
Beginning with World War II and ending with the collapse of the Soviet Union, this is a new account of the strategic dynamics that drove the age, with portraits of its major personalities and much fresh insight into its most crucial events. It contains much new information drawn from newly opened Soviet, East European, and Chinese archives. Now, as America once again finds itself in a global confrontation with an implacable ideological enemy, this is a story whose lessons it is vitally necessary to understand.--From publisher description.