Debating the Origins of the Cold War: American and Russian Perspectives

by Ralph B. Levering, Vladimir O. Pechatnov, Verena Botzenhart-Viehe

Debating the Origins of the Cold War examines the coming of the Cold War through Americans' and Russians' contrasting perspectives and actions. In two engaging essays, the authors demonstrate that a huge gap existed between the democratic, capitalist, and global vision of the post-World War II peace that most Americans believed in and the dictatorial, xenophobic, and regional approach that characterized Soviet policies. The authors argue that repeated failures to find mutually acceptable solutions to concrete problems led to the rapid development of the Cold War, and they conclude that, given the respective concerns and perspectives of the time, both superpowers were largely justified in their courses of action. Supplemented by primary sources, including documents detailing Soviet espionage in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s and correspondence between Premier Josef Stalin and Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov during postwar meetings, this is the first book to give equal attention to the U.S. and Soviet policies and perspectives.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Russia, Military Fiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[glenn]

Super anti-Soviet, anti-communist slant throughout the text. Difficult to see it as any objective attempt at analysis because the “Russian Perspective” was the only real attempt at meaningful historical analysis, and even then it had its shortcomings. The U.S. perspective is purely ideological and does not engage with actual material realities. Was written during a time when American liberals were clearly still riding on the afterglow of the USSR’s dissolution about 10 years prior.

[Max]

significantly better than leffler. an actually intriguing read. appreciated the split between the american and russian perspectives, it was incredibly useful. if you find yourself wanting to read about the origins of the cold war pick up this book.

[Elizabeth]

Interesting setup, but the American section was clearly written with the post-Cold War euphoria of the West; the authors were clear about Soviet ideological blindness and faulty decisions, but didn't apply that same view towards American ideology and neoliberalism.

[Shawn]

opening the first page reading "it's Truman's fault" smiling and closing the book

[Kevin Murphy]

Russian perspective was written much better with more perspective and nuance. And it actually added depth to the primary sources. Shame the American view couldn’t see past its own idealism.

[Brandy]

Was assigned this book for a grad class.
Very interesting comparison of the two sides of the early Cold War. While the documents sort of seem like afterthoughts, it is always nice to have those as well. I will keep this book handy for my (hopefully) future teaching.