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CNN's Cold War Documentary: Issues and Controversy
This collection of essays provides perspective on The Cold War, the CNN-produced 24-part television series and accompanying book, and presents material on both sides of the debate: Is the CNN series an accurate depiction or revisionist history? CNN's Cold War Documentary presents material on both sides of the debate to answer this queston.
173 pages, Paperback
First published April 5, 2000
6 people want to read
About the author
Arnold Beichman
22 books1 followerArnold Beichman was a conservative political pundit. At the time of his death, he was a Hoover Institution research fellow and a columnist for The Washington Times. He spent much of his life as a crusader against communism.
Beichman was born on New York City’s Lower East Side, in Manhattan, in a family of immigrants from Ukraine. He received a BA from Columbia University in 1934, after which he succeeded his friend, Arthur Lelyveld, as editor-in-chief of the Columbia Daily Spectator. Beichman spent many years in journalism, working for the New York Herald Tribune, PM, Newsweek, and others. He returned to Columbia in his 50s to receive his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science, in 1967 and 1973, respectively.
He is the namesake of "Beichman's Law", which states: "With the single exception of the American Revolution, the aftermath of all revolutions from 1789 on only worsened the human condition."
Beichman is the author of a book on Herman Wouk entitled Herman Wouk: the Novelist as Social Historian. Additional works include The Other State Department, Yuri Andropov: New Challenge to the West (coauthored), Nine Lies about America, Anti-American Myths: Their Causes and Consequences, and CNN's Cold War Documentary: Issues and Controversy.
Beichman was born on New York City’s Lower East Side, in Manhattan, in a family of immigrants from Ukraine. He received a BA from Columbia University in 1934, after which he succeeded his friend, Arthur Lelyveld, as editor-in-chief of the Columbia Daily Spectator. Beichman spent many years in journalism, working for the New York Herald Tribune, PM, Newsweek, and others. He returned to Columbia in his 50s to receive his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science, in 1967 and 1973, respectively.
He is the namesake of "Beichman's Law", which states: "With the single exception of the American Revolution, the aftermath of all revolutions from 1789 on only worsened the human condition."
Beichman is the author of a book on Herman Wouk entitled Herman Wouk: the Novelist as Social Historian. Additional works include The Other State Department, Yuri Andropov: New Challenge to the West (coauthored), Nine Lies about America, Anti-American Myths: Their Causes and Consequences, and CNN's Cold War Documentary: Issues and Controversy.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 15, 2017
As a high school History teacher, I am very familiar with the CNN Cold War documentary that is the subject of this book. For that reason it was fascinating to read of the controversy that the 24 part series had suited in the USA. This slim volume reprints some of the highlights of the debate which accompanied the airing of the series.
The first chapter is an effective hook into the book, being a lively exchange of articles and letters between the editor of the conservative magazine 'Commentary' and the series' producer Jeremy Isaacs, with others chipping in. Although the tone of this was often somewhat shrill and uncivil, it immediately laid out the main points of the controversy. Essentially, critics of the series and it's accompanying book fear that it draws a moral equivalency between the USA and the Soviet Union, holding both at least in part responsible for the origins of the conflict and criticising both for their roles in the less morally defensible actions that took place between 1945 and 1990.
The rest of the book served largely to expand on that opening salvo. Heavyweight historians like Richard Pipes and John Lewis Gaddis say their pieces for and against the documentary respectively. Like many of the critics, Pipes had some legitimate gripes with the series, but these were interspersed with some disappointingly shallow and poorly justified complaints. I felt that this was the case for many of the criticisms of the series, with chapters often containing equal measures of good, well-argued objections to some of the series' content alongside what amounted to intemperant rants, about the lack of triumphalism. Most guilty of the latter was the book's editor Arnold Beichman, which perhaps explains why most of the chapters were given over to criticisms rather than defences of the series.
So why the high rating? Despite the repetitive and often imbalanced criticisms, there was a lot of good debate and helpful material in terms of getting my students to think about the contestable nature of these events. Gaddis is patient and thoughtful with his responses and towards the end John L Harper provides the most fair minded review. So I would highly recommend this book to other teachers and documentary lovers.
The first chapter is an effective hook into the book, being a lively exchange of articles and letters between the editor of the conservative magazine 'Commentary' and the series' producer Jeremy Isaacs, with others chipping in. Although the tone of this was often somewhat shrill and uncivil, it immediately laid out the main points of the controversy. Essentially, critics of the series and it's accompanying book fear that it draws a moral equivalency between the USA and the Soviet Union, holding both at least in part responsible for the origins of the conflict and criticising both for their roles in the less morally defensible actions that took place between 1945 and 1990.
The rest of the book served largely to expand on that opening salvo. Heavyweight historians like Richard Pipes and John Lewis Gaddis say their pieces for and against the documentary respectively. Like many of the critics, Pipes had some legitimate gripes with the series, but these were interspersed with some disappointingly shallow and poorly justified complaints. I felt that this was the case for many of the criticisms of the series, with chapters often containing equal measures of good, well-argued objections to some of the series' content alongside what amounted to intemperant rants, about the lack of triumphalism. Most guilty of the latter was the book's editor Arnold Beichman, which perhaps explains why most of the chapters were given over to criticisms rather than defences of the series.
So why the high rating? Despite the repetitive and often imbalanced criticisms, there was a lot of good debate and helpful material in terms of getting my students to think about the contestable nature of these events. Gaddis is patient and thoughtful with his responses and towards the end John L Harper provides the most fair minded review. So I would highly recommend this book to other teachers and documentary lovers.
Displaying 1 of 1 review