The Cold War

A World History

By: Odd Arne Westad

Narrated by: Julian Elfer

Length: 22 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

In The Cold War, Odd Arne Westad offers a new perspective on a century when a superpower rivalry and an ideological war transformed every corner of our globe. We traditionally think of the Cold War as a post-World War II diplomatic and military conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. But in this major new work, Westad argues that the conflict must be understood as a global ideological confrontation with roots in the industrial revolution and with continuing implications for the world today. The Cold War may have begun on the perimeters of Europe, but it had its largest impacts in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Expanding our understanding of the Cold War both geographically and chronologically, Westad offers the definitive new history of an ongoing battle.

©2017 Odd Arne Westad (P)2017 HighBridge, a Division of Recorded Books

Good history

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A detailed and exciting account!

loved it. It is a detailed and thorough, but not boring or monotonous, account of an interesting part of relatively modern history. I found the book unbiased and without a political agenda, something increasingly hard to find as of late. The reader is aslo great, keeping a lively and brisk, but unhurried pace.

A Thorough, Easy to Understand Overview

Whether you are more academically oriented or a lay-reader, if you wish to improve your understanding of the Cold War or broaden your knowledge of world history from the onset of the 20th century to its end, this is a great book for you. While it is not perfect, at times seeming to emphasize the US, Europe, and East Asia more than a proper "world history" might merit, the author acknowledges early on that a single volume account cannot possibly cover EVERYTHING and I do not feel this detracts from the book's value. It nonetheless does satisfactorily incorporate the histories of South and Latin America, the Middle East, Southern Asia, and Africa into a discussion of the Cold War in a much more comprehensive fashion than I have seen before.

Stylistically, it is written in a very accessible manner and the audiobook format is very listener-friendly. The reader has a good voice, while the writer does not assume you have any expertise. It is very narrative driven, keeping interest by fleshing out key personalities such as Tito, Stalin, and Mao, all while it does not assume you remembered every detail between chapters, giving you the occasional reminder of "who's who" when switching between topics in a very non-condescending way.

I personally am a current university student majoring in History, and came in wanting to expand my knowledge of the Cold War from a more "worldly" perspective, and must say I give it a stamp of approval for that. The book achieves what it sets out to do (inform the layman and inspire further inquiry for students and researchers) while the audiobook gives voice to a book that is already very "conversational" in tone.

Excellent narration and easy to understand

This is an excellent overview of the cold war with a great narrator. If you are looking for a good introduction to the cold war, this is a great place to start. This book really helps place the modern world in context.

Interesting overview of Cold War from center-left

Interesting overview of the Cold War, but from a center-left skewed perspective. The tranditional Cold War "villains" (e.g., Stalin, Mao, Brezhnev) are softened and excesses glossed over, while any contribution from Reagan are minimized. Worth a read.

Objective and compelling narrative

Highly recommend this book. The narration was a little inaudible (less than perfect studio?) sometimes but the narrative was very compelling and objective.

One of the Best

All the way from the introduction to the conclusion was fabulous. This should be used for University level history class.

excellent survey of relavent periods and players

Very good level of detail and grasp of the subject. It seems that only recently do we have the right perspective, and the author captured it very well.

Excellent overview of Cold War

This is a nice overview of the Cold War, ideal for those interested in modern history yet enough interesting insights to hold interest for the historian. This book gives more attention to the nations on the periphery than most histories of the Cold War which nice. The narrator, forget his name, does an excellent job throughout.

A very thorough account

A very detailed and informative book. I highly recommend it if you want to learn about the Cold War.