Cold War: An International History

by Carole Fink

More than a bipolar conflict between two Superpowers, the decades-long Cold War had implications for the entire world. In this accessible, comprehensive retelling, Carole K. Fink provides new insights and perspectives on key events with an emphasis on people, power, and ideas, along with cultural coverage “from the Beetle to the Beatles.” Cold War goes beyond US-USSR relations to explore the Cold War from an international perspective, including key events and developments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Fink also offers a broader time line of the Cold War than any other text, charting the lead-up to the conflict with the Russian Revolution and World War II and discussing the aftermath of the Cold War since 1992. Based on the latest research and scholarship, Cold War is the consummate book on this lengthy and complex conflict for today's students and history buffs.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Humanities, World History, Military History, Academic

352 pages, Paperback

First published December 3, 2013

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 2 out of 5]

B-/DNF, frustratingly academic, lost interest. Not for me, and I abandoned it.

Read John Lewis Gaddis, "The Cold War : a new history" (2005) instead: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
4+ stars!

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thorough and highly readable history of the Cold War as it impacted the entire world. As claimed in the title, the book truly does take a global approach, covering U.S. and Russian actions, interference, exploitations, and posturing not only in Europe and Indochina but also Africa, the Middle East, and South America. The best feature of the book is the list at the end of each chapter --in addition to the usual bibliography, it includes lists of archival sources (!), contemporaneous accounts, and even movies. The result is a richly textured journey through a period of time that shaped, and continues to shape, America's relations with the rest of the world.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and concise which is exactly what it said it was. I enjoyed the book and found it a great 30000 foot view of the Cold War with plenty of additional reading listed at the end of each chapter if you want more information.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense with particulars; sparse on embellishment. That’s how I would describe this book. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just what it is. It reads like a PBS documentary with the narration voiceover. It’s understandable that it would be this way, as it begins with the lead-up to the Cold War and then proceeds in segments of time up through the 21st century. So, it has a lot of ground to cover. But don’t let your mind checkout for too long while reading this accounting of history, or you’ll easily miss some seminal points. It reads on from one point to the next with the regular staccato rhythm of an upbeat chamber orchestra. It never meanders off into the weeds.

This book appears academic, like something you would read alongside your assigned course textbook in College. One thing that did impress me about this book is that (as far as I can tell) it doesn’t appear to present history with any sort of political bias. It does its best to just tell you what happened without trying to tell you what to think about it. And that’s a surprisingly difficult thing to do; It’s hard to talk about what happened without talking about why those things happened. No matter how hard you try, there’s bound to be a narrative presented. And there is some discussion as to the ’why’, but even these are presented in the sense of ‘some people think this, or some people think that’.

And you won’t find this book lacking in references. This book is chock-full of them. This gives the presentation added heft and weight, and as one to be taken seriously. One of the common complaints I hear on non-fiction books is that there aren’t enough references. One can’t make that complaint here. I can’t imagine the task the author had in gathering all of this information, and to gather from reputable sources as well.

However, that being said, I can’t say it was an exciting read. If you’re looking for a page-turner, this isn’t it. This book is for the person who’s looking for a broad overview of the Cold War. In this case, that was Myself. This will give you that 30,000 ft. view of the Cold War. I would recommend using this book as your foundation and then build off of that by finding some other Cold War books from varying perspectives. But this book will certainly give you some solid ground to begin understanding the complexities of the Cold War.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of a hard read because it covers decades of history and keeps jumping across the globe. At the same time, it stitched together a lot of details that I had never associated before. I would recommend it!

[Dermot Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another decent book for anyone interested in the cold war. Not a whole lot of new thinking or revelation therein but well laid out and excellent bibliography covering not just hard historical sources but cultural sources such as fictional literature and film.

[missesxgene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazingly informative and well researched but HORRIBLY academic in tone. This book needs to be read over time, a few chunks at a time, to really understand and internalize all of the information, dates, and people. Otherwise, it’s a great resource.

[nickoli :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for a class as the textbook, but it was super well written! I appreciated the footnotes of additional information, which truly gave me all of the context I needed when I was unfamiliar with a reference. Now let’s hope all of the information stuck for finals :)

[Christina C · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF. I had just read "The Cold War: A New History" and couldn't get into this one. Very technical and a little out of my comfortable vocabulary range (it was distracting).

[Kelli Fillingim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edited one edition of it, and it is a fascinating look on a very controversial part of the world. I especially LOVED the photographs.

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A textbook. It’s fine ? American-centric

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

perfectly adequate summarized history of the Cold War, but it lacked sustained integration of primary sources. Fink's writing style has an oversimplifying effect as well

[Owen King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly easy to digest.

[Avani · Rating 4 out of 5]

How did this entire book manage to ignore the Non-Aligned Movement???

Like, well written, well structured as an introduction, but what???

[Brendan Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good (though very general) overview of the Cold War for the general reader and/or introductory college student. Fink does a good job laying out the terrain, and provides comprehensive lists of primary and secondary material (including novels and films as well as academic articles and books) for the interested reader.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this very general history of the Cold War period. Of greater use to the reader is the list of sources Fink provides after each chapter. In addition to a long list of secondary sources she lists primary documents, films, works of fiction, etc. If I were to purchase this book it would be for the list of primary sources alone not to mention the other sources.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

An informative, if general, read. I recommend this to anyone with a limited knowledge of the Cold War era. Fink's recommended materials list points to great places to gain more in-depth coverage of this very broad topic.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

4/10 This is just too brief and dry for such a huge topic. It would be useful for someone with no knowledge of the topic whatsoever or as an overview to prepare for a larger study.

[Tue Le · Rating 5 out of 5]

A refreshingly academic take on the Cold War. This could be used both as a textbook and a reference, with extensive bibliographies and suggestions for further reading.