Cold War : the essential reference guide /

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Bibliographic Details
Imprint:Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, c2012.
Description:1 online resource.
Language:English
Subject:Cold War (1945-1989)
Cold War -- Encyclopedias.
World politics -- 1945-1989 -- Encyclopedias.
World politics.
Encyclopedias.
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/8768616
Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:Arnold, James R., 1952-
Wiener, Roberta, 1952-
ISBN:1610690044 (electronic bk.)
9781610690041 (electronic bk.)
9781610690034 (hardcopy : alk. paper)
1610690036 (hardcopy : alk. paper)
Notes:Description based on print version record.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Other form:Original 9781610690034 1610690036
Review by Choice Review

This volume examines the Cold War from an American standpoint. The introduction defines this "ideological battle" and "military struggle," which dominated the 20th century's second half, as "a state of mutual hostility, distrust, and rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union." The first part comprises three essays that explore the Cold War's causes, development, and effects--mainly on the countries involved. Part 2, "Reference Entries," features encyclopedia-like signed articles, mainly on prominent people who played major roles, e.g., Americans such as Acheson, Dulles, Hoover, LBJ, Kennedy, Kissinger, and Nixon. Entries on politicians from the USSR include Stalin, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Khruschev, and Yeltsin. From the Eastern bloc only Willy Brandt and Josip Broz Tito are represented. One would have expected to see other Eastern European heads of state or major players, e.g., Romania's Nicolae Ceauescu, Hungary's Janos Kadar, Bulgaria's Todor Zhivkov, Czechoslovakia's Alexander Dub^Dvcek, and Poland's Edward Gierek and Lech Walesa. Cuba's Fidel Castro is also overlooked. Ho Chi Minh and Mao Zedong are present, as is Winston Churchill.This volume discusses countries like Cuba, Israel, and Laos but, surprisingly, includes no entries on Eastern European countries, where communism thrived for half a century. Other entries cover wars (e.g., Afghanistan, Congo, Korea, and Vietnam) and pacts and meetings (e.g., Helsinki Final Act, Geneva Conference, Warsaw Pact, but not the Yalta Conference). Part 3 features 30 primary source documents on events including the Marshall Plan, NATO's formation, and Sputnik. A chronology highlights major moments. Contributors hold advanced degrees and generally are affiliated with US institutions. Some are independent scholars. Despite some distinctive features, this volume does not capture the Cold War's quintessence. It should be used in conjunction with other books on the topic. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-level undergraduates; general readers. H. G. B. Anghelescu Wayne State University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review

Beginning in 1945 and lasting for more than four decades, the Cold War pitted the capitalist West (primarily the U.S.) against the Communist-controlled East (primarily the Soviet Union). This was a time of competing politics and economic ideologies. Three major conflicts the Korean War, 1950-53; the Vietnam War 1946-75; and the Soviet War in Afghanistan 1979-89 occurred during this time as well as several smaller conflicts. This period of time saw a massive arms race, accelerated growth of technology, and the rise of the military-industrial complex. While the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 is considered the end of the Cold War, its effects are still felt today. The editors and 56 other experts contributed the 85 signed alphabetical entries, along with 6 essays discussing the causes and consequences of the Cold War, the growth of technology, evolving East-West relations, proxy wars and military aid, and Ronald Regan and the Cold War. Each entry and essay contains bibliographical references. The entries include people, places, and events and range in length from two to eight pages. More than 30 primary-source documents include such items as speeches, memos, legislative acts, presidential messages, and treaties. The chronology begins in February 1945 with the Yalta Conference of the Big Three (U.S., UK, and Soviet Union) and ends with the official dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. A bibliography, a list of contributors, and an index complete the volume. Numerous photographs and maps are also included. Examples of entries are Cuban missile crisis; Sputnik; Prague spring; and Strategic arms reduction talks and treaties. Major figures from the time are also represented. Primary documents include Ronald Reagan's speech Tear Down This Wall, given on June 12, 1987; Yuri Andropov's Memorandum to Brezhnev on Afghanistan, in December 1979; the U.S. War Powers Act, November 7, 1973; Harry S. Truman's Declaration of a National Emergency on December 16, 1959; and the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty. A recommended purchase for school, academic, and public libraries.--Talley, Kaye Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review

Arnold (The Moro War: How America Battled a Muslim Insurgency in the Philippine Jungle, 1902-1913) and Wiener (managing editor, Journal of Military History; The Encyclopedia of North American Colonial Conflicts to 1775: A Political, Social, and Military History) make a very complex and interwoven set of events clear even to readers who are not military historians. Their concise but thorough work addresses broad topics such as the causes and consequences of the Cold War and offers entries on narrower subjects such as Arab nationalism, gulags, Ostpolitik (the German foreign policy initiative), and the United Nations. Related figures, from President Kennedy to Nikita Kruschev and from Joseph McCarthy to Yuri Andropov, are also profiled. An extensive bibliography at the close of the volume as well as suggestions for further reading at the end of each topic make this a great resource for starting research on the era. VERDICT This book makes a difficult topic easier to understand, but it still requires some knowledge of the time in question.-Christine Sharbrough, Derry P.L., NH (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review


Review by Booklist Review


Review by Library Journal Review