Russia, America and the Cold War, 1949-1991

by Martin McCauley

Book Overview

Covering the development of the Cold War from the mid-twentieth century to the present day, The Cold War 1949-2016 explores the struggle for world domination that took place between the United States... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0582784824
• ISBN13: 9780582784826
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: Longman Publishing Group
• Length: 193 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Generally a good overview

Studying for my exams, this book gives a pretty good overview of the Cold War and the significant events that took place, all at a good pace. By moving chronologically and according to the different stages of the CW (as sectioned), it makes it easier to comprehend some of the periods where the tension increased all the way to the fall of the SU. Generally it was a good, informative read, and not to mention, entertaining at points- I found out that "the greatest disappointment for Khrushchev was that his ardent desire to visit Disneyland was frustrated- the Americans said they could not guarantee his safety". Furthermore, the book also includes a chronology, several documents from the period, and answers some questions which may be worth pondering over when dealing with the subject.

Not bad

A good overview of the main events of this period: if you're just generally curious about the Cold War and what the main events and trends in it were, this is quite suitable. However, the sheer brevity of the format of this series of books (and 'Seminar Studies' is very good, believe me) works against a fully fleshed-out account of this topic. There are mentions of certain events but they lack a little background needed to explain them. I kept finding myself reading some remark and thinking 'But *why* did that happen?'. Still, a good read, and well-explained.

An excellent overview

As an AP American Hisitory teacher, I was looking for a concise book that would give my students a good overview of the Cold War. This turned out to be an excellent book, well suited for my purpose. I have my students read three books over the summer as they prepare for my class, this was one of the three. McCauley gives a concise account of the Cold War, starting with the Berlin crisis of 1948 and ending with the fall of the Soviet Union. His chronological framework to the book takes the reader through some very difficult sernerios for the United States. McCauley starts off with some background material, giving the reader eight theories about the reasons for the Cold War, some give the reader many interesting things to think about as they go through the book. McCauley then goes through the Cold War and breaks it down into five generalized time periods. This makes it easier for students that may not know much about the time period to understand the Cold War. McCauley ends the book by asking seven challanging questions for the reader to ponder. This gives the reader a chance to digest the information and helps the reader come to some interesting conclusions. The sixteen documents that McCauley provides also gives the readers of the book different ideas and causes as well as consequences of the Cold War that may have been missed in this short but excellent overview of the Cold War.