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Bezig met laden... The Cold War: A Very Short Introductiondoor Robert J. McMahon
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. This book is lean but packs quite a punch! Unbiased portrayal of the scenarios that led to cold war. Insecurity and some poor diplomacy lay at the heart of the cold war. Haven't read a simpler book than this about cold war. Kudos! ( ) Largely fine, this quick survey falls down in two critical ways. First, there's a persistent bias in focus and attribution, no doubt partially about the state of the sources, but still marked. The author seems to prefer different vocabularies and sentence structures to describe the US and the Soviet Union. The US tends to do things--often for the wrong reasons or bad motives--while such things merely take place, happen or occur with or around the Soviet Union. The US acts, but the Soviet Union more commonly reacts, responds or defends. The US acquires its various satellites intentionally, and mucks around with them unfairly; the Soviet Union just seems to have them, and is never seen to do much beyond "supporting" them. As Britain was once said to have done, the Soviet Union seems to "conquer half the world in a fit of absence of mind." Second, while the internal politics and motivations of the US and Soviet Union are dealt with in depth—anyway, depth appropriate to a short survey—China is treated as a mysterious, "inscrutable" power. Not sure it qualifies as *very* short, at almost 170 pages, but it is a very nicely written summary of the geopolitical aspects of the cold war. As McMahon himself admits, the domestic repercussions of cold war foreign policies are less well known, and I found the chapter on these much more interesting than the other stuff; I just wish someone had done a bit more research on them. The cold war itself is more or less history in the sense of 'done with;' the horrific results of cold war thinking persist in any number of ways, and we won't understand them by endlessly debating whether Gorbachev or Reagan or John Paul II was the Great Man who ended the Evil Empire. McMahon inclines to the 'Gorbachev did it unwittingly' school of thought, which seems reasonable, and he doesn't talk about it much, for which we can be thankful. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Onderdeel van de reeks(en)
The massive disorder and economic ruin following the Second World War inevitably predetermined the scope and intensity of the Cold War. But why did it last so long? And what impact did it have on the United States, the Soviet Union, Europe, and the Third World? Finally, how did it affect the broader history of the second half of the twentieth century--what were the human and financial costs? This Very Short Introduction provides a clear and stimulating interpretive overview of the Cold War, one that will both invite debate and encourage deeper investigation.--Publisher description. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)909.825History and Geography History World history 1800- 1900-1999, 20th centuryLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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