The Cold War

by C.B. Jones

Teach Yourself the Cold War covers all the basics, from the conflict's post-WWII origins, to the culture it created, to how the balance between the major powers was eventually tipped in the West's favor. This engaging title also describes controversial topics, such as what JFK and his assassin held in common and whether or not the tension between East and West was truly relieved after the Berlin Wall fell. The Teach Yourself History series present all the facts and dates in a dynamic format that enables you to experience and understand the great historic events that shaped, and continue to influence, our world.

Genres: History, Politics

256 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 2004

About the author

Christopher Bertram Jones

Reviews

[Pete daPixie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too broad a brush for my liking. Covering events from the end of WWII into the 1990's. Not just a broad brush, but it's a sloppy paint job. The author, C.B. Jones is an experienced teacher AND Head of Faculty! She is also an A Level examiner with a specialist knowledge of 20th century history. What is the country coming to?
Well, she may be adept at ticking multi-choice answers on examination papers but with her specialist knowledge of 20th century history, I have to wonder why 'The Cold War' is littered with errors. Perhaps that is the purpose of these 'teach yourself' books, because the teacher can't.

[Alycia · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are interested in learning more about the Cold War, this book is for you. The chapter on the Arms Race is gripping. I like that it was written from a British perspective because all too often the Cold War is painted as the USA's shining moment. If you think that, you need to read this book!
And you can learn about why Cuba went Communist, how Reagan ruined everything, and why we have so many ridiculous weapons of mass destruction.

Warning: you will probably get dizzy from shaking your head in amazing disgust a lot.

[Kristian Gunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable and succinct overview of the Cold War and it's extended relationships. Reads like the framework to a good political thriller which the sub stories have spawned 1000s of down the years.

[Ali Rehman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teach Yourself series gives you a quick insight to some of the very important topics

[Rose]

I know these books aren’t intended to be terribly scholarly, but I find it somewhat hard to take seriously a book that includes comments like, “Castro had upped the anti.” or that in the “Taking it further” section of suggested reading, it advises that I watch M*A*S*H or “Any James Bond movie!” to further my knowledge. The book is repetitive and confusing in the way it mixes up timelines. It would have helped to have an actual timeline of key events given, but there wasn’t one. There is a slightly bizarre passage which notes that Chernobyl in Ukrainian means “wormwood”, which is mentioned in the Book of Revelations (okay then). The index is a joke.

The book is replete with apparently contradictory statements, poorly-structured sentences, and clumsy explanations. A few examples follow:

* A POW returning to Germany in 1948 found that his house was in the West zone, but his business (attached to the house) was in the Russian zone. Apparently, he “hatched a cunning plan to avoid living in the Russian zone” by walling off half of his house. His family then lived in the West half, while the East half fell apart. But…but…you just said his house WAS in the West zone.

* At one point, the book states that “Castro and his associates were not Communists, they were pushed in that direction by the United States.” However, in a later chapter, it notes that “Castro’s ambition had always been to spread the Communist revolution around the world”.

* Jones describes the USSR’s fears in 1979 that the Afghan Muslim fundamentalists “might overthrow Amin and draw in the Soviet Muslim population from the area near the Afghan border that might then break away from the USSR”, and that Afghanistan might form an alliance with Pakistan or China, so that it “seemed that the Soviets had little to lose”. It seems to me that they thought they had quite a lot to lose if Afghanistan slipped from their control, backed up by the fact that they then invaded Afghanistan to install a pro-Soviet regime.

* The CIA “succeeded in recruiting Marta Lorenz, Castro’s secretary and one-time lover. She was trained to kill by the CIA and succeeded in returning to Cuba and gaining admittance to Castro’s bedroom. He was well aware of her intentions and asked her point blank whether she had come to kill him.” That doesn’t sound like she was still his secretary.

* “Live Aid raised over £50 million in the UK and USA but today famine still remains a huge problem in Africa.” This sounds like Jones believes that Live Aid should have been sufficient to abolish famine forever in a whole continent, although she surely cannot.

In summary, then, this is not a particularly good book.