The Cold War

A New History

By: John Lewis Gaddis

Narrated by: Jay Gregory, Alan Sklar

It began during World War II, when American and Soviet troops converged from East and West. Their meeting point, a small German city, became part of a front line that solidified shortly thereafter into an Iron Curtain. It ended in a climactic square-off between Ronald Reagan's America and Gorbachev's Soviet Union. In between were decades of global confrontation, uncertainty, and fear.

Drawing on new and often startling information from newly opened Soviet, Eastern European, and Chinese archives, this thrilling account explores the strategic dynamics that drove the Cold War, provides illuminating portraits of its major personalities, and offers much fresh insight into its most crucial events. Riveting, revelatory, and wise, it tells a story whose lessons it is vitally necessary to understand as America once more faces an implacable ideological enemy.

©2006 John Lewis Gaddis (P)2013 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"Thrilling....An utterly engrossing account of Soviet-U.S. relations from WWII to the collapse of the U.S.S.R....A new, concise narration was Gaddis's aim here, and he succeeds royally." ( Publishers Weekly)

Not a Chronological History

John Lewis Gaddis in The Cold War approaches the Cold War from a number of different perspectives. Each is covered in one of seven chapters and an Epilogue. The most valuable to me were the last chapter “The Triumph of Hope” in which the Berlin Wall falls and the “Epilogue: The View Back” in which he summarizes what the Cold War meant. Individuals looking for a chronological history will not find it here, but the book is insightful and engrossing nonetheless. There are surprises even for those of old enough to have lived through the entire era. I particularly found the sections concerning Eisenhower’s misleading the public initially about Gary Powers and the U-2 interesting. Gaddis follows this theme of dishonesty through the Bay of Pigs and even Nixon’s fiasco. His explanation for FDR’s New Deal in geo-political context is interesting. Along the way, I felt that Gaddis treated every play (Republican and Democrat) in a balanced manner. This is a very good book and worthy of anyone willing to devote the time to it. The reading of Jay Gregory and Alan Sklar is excellent

A Captivating Way Of Telling History

I really enjoyed listening to this audio book, in particular the way that the author (and narrator) had a compelling way of telling history and making it fascinating. I'm just over 50 years of age, so when so much of the Cold War and other historical events of the time were going on, I like most young people, had very little interest in the events of the day....especially since so much of it was being shoved down my throat in school. I wish I had audible books back then, I just might have been a straight A student! (<:

Very good

This is a very nice book. You need some technical knowledge of how nuclear power plants work to understand the chapter where it talks about the technicalities of the accident, but otherwise it's a very pleasant read. I recommend.

Informative read

I had to read this for a college course..it was very informative…it was tricky to get a timeline from it as it bounced around a bit but once you read it in its entirety you get a full picture. I do feel like it was from a somewhat biased American perspective as you could sense in the language and adjectives used for each sides leaders. Would love to see the KGB intel on our great countries morally superior leaders. No mention of the thousands they were drugging, murdering, poisoning, sterilizing and oppressing in their own country during this time which would of made a more complete, forthright, objective and comprehensive, historically accurate telling of American Cold War history.

Gripping explanation of the Cold War, start to end

What did you love best about The Cold War?

This is a must read for those interested in how the West and the USSR, partners during WWII, turned into bitter rivals. Gaddis does a masterful job in painting the closing days of the second world war into the first salvos of what would later become the Cold War. He then thoroughly analyzes many important periods of the era, including the nuclear building, confrontation over Berlin, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, the election of Reagan.