The Cold War: A New History

The title to the New York Times book review of "The Cold War: A New History" is called "Look Back in Relief" written by Michael Beschloss.
That title indeed is what one could say at the end of this rather long odyssey called the Cold War. What Gaddis has done in this rather easy to read and gripping dialogue is to give a great general outline as to the cause and effects of the Cold War. Mr. Gaddis can utilize this work to write a definitive history which indeed would go into greater depth and detail.
To this time frame of World historical crisis would be an historical narrative on the order of the works of both the "World Crisis" and the "Second World War" written by Winston Churchill.
Gaddis gives the basic background and takes of the major political players such as Stalin, Mao Zedong, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, JFK, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II.
All the major conflicts and incidents such as the Berlin Wall, the Korean War, the Hungarian invasion etc. are all described here. Gaddis indeed gives mention and explanation to all these major events.
For the young students that Mr. Gaddis described in his Preface he does state this indeed may be like studying about the Carthaginians. However, I myself grew up and lived in this era throughout my childhood and into adulthood unto fatherhood. It was indeed a way of life.
How these political leaders dealt with each other and reacted to each other, determined the difference from living a normal life or facing utter annihilation.
What Gaddis has done here is excellent. It does need to be expounded and enhanced. At one point of his narrative I did have to laugh at his analysis. On page 33 he states "Meanwhile, Stalin had a blockade of Berlin. His reasons, even now, are not clear." Oh really, Gaddis is confused? Stalin has no clear reasons?? Stalin was no fool, he was pressing the Allies to determine their resolve. At this time he was testing the theory of the Communist proxy that the Allies would indeed separate and not be united in their efforts against the Soviet block. Indeed Stalin's ruse was foiled.
Outside of that particular diatribe, I concur with Gaddis' work. Good job 5 Stars.

This book is highly recommended for the student and the general reader interested in an overall survey of the Cold War as it was viewed and acted upon by the United States. A book on this topic from the French, British or Russian perspective would be a valuable adjunct to reading this volume. At times the book reads like an expanded outline but that is understandable considering the massive amount of information to be covered from the end of WW-2 to the fall of communism in 1991. For readers of American history on the watch for events and individuals worthy of additional study this book is a gold mine. The ample footnotes, extensive bibliography and index add to the usefulness of this book.

I want to recommend this book to any person interested in the cold war. In less than 300 pages the author gives a general overview of the events that took place from the end of the WW2 until the golpe that Eltsin made fail in the ex Urss on 1991. It summarizes many facts in a few pages and makes clear who were the main actors that contributed to feed and ultimately to end the cold war. There are also some comments from the author that help define the importance of the values and of the personalities and above all the reasons why cold war was born and finally ended. I HIGHLY recommend this book

OK, Fine. I later find this product cheaper IN Denmark.

Everything else went fine and smoothly...

Gaddis offers a concise, readable, and well-documented history of the Cold War. What he does not offer us is a "new" history, as the title promises. This book helped fill in some blanks about the most dangerous period of our history, but I didn't set the book down thinking I had a strongly different view on the event then I could have got from other sources.

I liked how the book allowed you to get in the heads of the various U.S. presidents, and see how they thought about the war--sometimes counterintuitively. However, it seemed like there were things left out. Cambodia is mentioned only in passing on the last page, even though communism hit that country harder than any other, arguably.

The book does seem titled to the idea that the U.S. was the morally superior of the two sides, though Gaddis does not shy away from the darker moments of U.S. geopolitics in the Cold War.

Oddly enough, I walked away hoping that there would be more, not less, retrospective analysis. Just how close was the Soviet Union to collapsing before Reagan took office? Just what might have happened if the United States had not "faught" the Cold War and let the Soviet Union expand and collapse on its own? Normally, scholars tend to get too far out on hypotheticals, but here I find myself wishing he would have spent a little more time on them.