History 322: The Cold War in Europe: Getting Started

In the first comprehensive reexamination of the period, a team of leading scholars shows how the conflict evolved from the geopolitical, ideological, economic and sociopolitical environments of the two world wars and interwar period, and discusses how markets, ideas and cultural interactions affected political discourse, diplomacy and strategy after World War II. The chapters focus not only on the United States and the Soviet Union, but also on critical regions such as Europe, the Balkans and East Asia.

The East-West struggle for supremacy from 1945 to 1989 shaped the lives of hundreds of millions and brought the world to the brink of disaster on several occasions. More than two decades on, the debate over its causes and dynamics is far from over. Drawing on the latest archival evidence and scholarly research, historian John Lamberton Harper provides a concise, briskly-written assessment of the Cold War. Why did it start, and eventually envelope nearly every corner of the planet? Why did it stay "cold," at least in its original, European theatre? Why did it end, and who should take the credit?

Drawing on newly accessible archives as well as memoirs and other sources, this biographical dictionary documents the lives of some two thousand of the region's most important twentieth century historical and cultural figures.

Includes a comprehensive overview essay, plus separate essays on the causes and consequences of the conflict, as well as entries on people and events.

Covers Eastern Europe to the end of the Cold War.

Covers all aspects of European social history from the Renaissance to the present. This six-volume reference includes more than 230 articles on everything from serfdom and the economy, to witchcraft and public health.

Includes many entries of relevance to the history of the Cold War in Europe.

With particular focus on the early nationalist and subsequent fascist and communist periods, this reference book provides an essential guide to the events, people and ideas which have shaped, and continue to shape, central and eastern Europe since the re-ordering of Europe at the end of the First World War.