Product Description

The Cold War is one of the most important and widely studied areas of history. Martin McCauley’s best-selling Seminar Study unravels the complex issues which gave rise to the Cold War and explains how it originated.

This new edition is revised, updated and expanded with new material on areas such as the KGB and spying, and the contribution of intelligence to Stalin’s picture of the world. The new introduction looks at our perceptions of the Cold War, the various approaches that have been adopted for reviewing the Cold War and the difficulties of developing a theory of the Cold War.

The book incorporates the most recent scholarship, theories and newly-released information to provide students with an invaluable introduction to the subject.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135143 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 196 pages

From the Back Cover
 

Origins of the Cold War covers the formative years of the extraordinary struggle between the two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States. In a clear and concise manner, Martin McCauley explains how the Cold War originated and developed and unravels some of the complex issues that gave rise to the Cold War. The book explores questions such as:

• Who was responsible for the Cold War?
• Was it inevitable or could it have been avoided?
• Was Stalin genuinely interested in a post-war agreement?

This third edition is revised, updated and expanded with new material on areas such as the KGB and spying, and the contribution of intelligence to Stalin’s picture of the world. The introduction looks at our perceptions of the Cold War, the various approaches that have been adopted for reviewing the Cold War and the difficulties of developing a theory of the Cold War. The book incorporates the most recent scholarship, theories and newly-released information to provide students with an invaluable introduction to the subject.

Martin McCauley is a seasoned writer and broadcaster who has a wealth of experience in Russian and international affairs. His recent publications include Russia, America and the Cold War revised 2nd edition (2008), Stalin and Stalinism revised 3rd edition(2008) and The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union (2007) .

About the Author

Martin McCauley is former Senior lecturer in Politics at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London. An extremely accomplished author, he has written three other Seminar Studies volumes: The Khruschev Era, Russia, America and the Cold War and Stalin and Stalinism and two trade history books for Longman History: Bandits, Gangsters and the Mafia and Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant for A Level Modern History (OCR)!!
This book was like the bible when it came to my OCR A Level Modern History course. For A Level students, the course structure alters slightly from AS as more emphasis is placed on historiography, mainly the perspectives and premises of other historians, Orthodox, Revionist and Post-revisionist, all of which McCauley covers in detail. McCauley himself is referred to by many OCR exam papers for this course, thus to understand his style of writing and his perspectives regarding any of the themes covered by the Cold War syllabus is always a plus. Without dragging on, I'll try and summarise the best points:

+ Detailed description of the three principal theories (as mentioned above) with excellent and appropriate reference to many other historians, (i.e. Schlesinger (orthodox), Leffler (revisionist) and Gaddis (post-revisionist);

+ The popular exam themes (i.e. whether it was Soviet or US expansionism that stimulated the Cold War) are addressed one by one with solid evidence for both and a neutral point of view thus allowing the student to arrive at their own conlcusion;

+ Consistent chronological structure so everything seems to flow and you can reference back quite easily;

+ Superb reference tools:
- Detailed timeline;
- Sources from historians (as mentioned above) and significant figures such as Churchill, Truman and of course, Stalin;
- A "Who's Who?" section which summarises each of the important figures during the period;
- Comprehensive narrative of all actions (e.g. A-bombs, WW2) and policies ( US, British and Soviet) and the influences they had on the instigation and development of the Cold War until 1949.

The only negative is that there is a lot of prose and you have to be prepared to read the majority of it in order to use this book to its full potential. Simply a MUST HAVE for the course and I suggest buying your own as then you can scribble as many notes as you want!

Hope this helped!