Cold Wars: Asia, the Middle East, Europe

by Lorenz M. Lüthi

What was the Cold War that shook world politics for the second half of the twentieth century? Standard narratives focus on Soviet-American rivalry as if the superpowers were the exclusive driving forces of the international system. Lorenz M. Lüthi offers a radically different account, restoring agency to regional powers in Asia, the Middle East and Europe and revealing how regional and national developments shaped the course of the global Cold War. Despite their elevated position in 1945, the United States, Soviet Union and United Kingdom quickly realized that their political, economic, and military power had surprisingly tight limits given the challenges of decolonization, Asian-African internationalism, pan-Arabism, pan-Islamism, Arab–Israeli antagonism, and European economic developments. A series of Cold Wars ebbed and flowed as the three world regions underwent structural changes that weakened or even severed their links to the global ideological clash, leaving the superpower Cold War as the only major conflict that remained by the 1980s.

Genres: History, World History, Politics

761 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 31, 2020

Reviews

[Patrick Armstrong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for school so not as exciting but still loved it. So many big lessons about the extent of the Cold War and challenges the notion that it was one single narrative. Makes some really interesting points about its legacy.

[Alec Autor]

Class

[Uday Bhardwaj · Rating 5 out of 5]

took a class with Luthi. choosing to look past the neoliberal bias. probably the most accessible monograph I have ever read. the only reason why this is so high is because of how easy this book was to revise. clear topic sentences, introductions, conclusions, and divisions of topics. the peak of monograph writing and the technical aspects of historiography.