Cold War Dichotomies

Abstract

James E. Cronin, The World The Cold War Made. Order, Chaos and the Return of History (New York and London: Routledge, 1996, £15.99). Pp. 344. ISBN 0 0415 90821 3.

Richard M. Fried, The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! Pageantry and Patriotism in Cold War America (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, £25.00). Pp. 220. ISBN 0 19 507020 8.

Michael J. Hogan, A Cross of Iron. Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945–1954 (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998, £25.00). Pp. 554. ISBN 0 521 64044 x.

Michael Kort (ed.), The Columbia Guide to the Cold War (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999, £32.00). Pp. 366. ISBN 0 231 10772 2.

Joseph M. Siracusa, Into the Dark House. American Diplomacy and the Ideological Origins of the Cold War (Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 1998, $36.95 cloth, $14.95 paper). Pp. 288. ISBN 0 941690 81 4, 0 941690 80 6.

There was a time not so long ago when it seemed that there was nothing new to be written about the origins of the Cold War. The topic appeared to have become stale, with the same battles being refought, along familiar lines. Cold War studies have not abated, however, and indeed have been reinvigorated by a number of developments. The writer on American involvement in the Cold War now has to consider how to integrate Eastern bloc material into their work, and the developing theses of scholars from other Western nations, and from within the US to respond to the prevailing intellectual trend in much of academia to focus on ideology, culture and discourse.