General Annotated further reading guide

  • Antony Best, Jussi Hanhimaki, Joseph Maiolo and Kirsten Schulze, International History of the Twentieth Century and Beyond (Routledge, London, 2008).
  • D. Reynolds, One World Divisible: a Global History since 1945 (Allen Lane, Penguin Press, London, 2000).
  • D. Reynolds, From World War to Cold War, (Oxford, OUP, 2006)
  • Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2005)

On theories of the Cold War:

  • Allen Hunter (ed.), Rethinking the Cold War (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1998)
  • Melvyn Leffler and Odd Arne Westad, eds., The Cambridge History of the Cold War (Three volumes, Cambridge University Press, 2010).
  • Odd Arne Westad (ed.), Reviewing the Cold War: Approaches, Interpretations, Theory (Frank Cass, London, 2000).
  • Richard N. Lebow and Thomas Risse-Kappen (eds.), International Relations Theory and the End of the Cold War (Columbia University Press, New York, 1995).
  • R. Saull, Re-thinking Theory and History in the Cold War: The State, Military Power and Social Revolution, (London, Routledge, 2001)

On general Cold War surveys:

  • J. Gaddis, The Cold War, (London, Allen Lane, 2006).
  • John L. Gaddis, The Cold War (Penguin, London, 2007)
  • Melvyn Leffler, For the Soul of Mankind: the US, the Soviet Union and the Cold War (Hill and Wang, New York, 2007).
  • Michael Dockrill and Michael Hopkins, The Cold War, 1945-91 (Palgrave-Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2005)
  • Mike Sewell, The Cold War (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
  • Norman Stone, The Atlantic and its Enemies: a history of the Cold War (Penguin, London, 2011)
  • R. E. Powaski, The Cold War: the United States and the Soviet Union, 1917–1991 (Oxford University Press, New York, 1998).
  • R. Grogin, Natural Enemies, The United States and the Soviet Union in the Cold War: 1917-1991, (Rowman and Littlefield, London, 2000)
  • Simon J. Ball, The Cold War: an International History 1947–1999 (Arnold, London, 1998).
  • Walter LaFeber, America, Russia and the Cold War, 1945–2000 (McGraw-Hill, New York, 9th edn., 2002).
  • Wilfried Loth, Overcoming the Cold War: a history of détente, 1950-91 (Palgrave, London, 2002).

On Vietnam:

  • James S. Olson and Randy Roberts, Where the Domino Fell: America and Vietnam, 1945–95 (St Martin’s Press, New York, 2nd edn., 1996).
  • Kevin Ruane, War and Revolution in Vietnam, 1930–75 (University College London, London, 1998).
  • Mark Lawrence, The Vietnam War: a concise international history (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010)
  • Robert McMahon (ed.), Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War (D. C. Heath, Lexington, 2nd edn., 1995).
  • Vivienne Sanders, The USA and Vietnam, 1945-75 (Hodder, London, 2007)

Armaments and Military Strategy:

  • D. Johnstone, The Politics of Euro-Missiles (Verso, London, 1984).
  • D. Ford, The Button: the Pentagon’s Strategic Command and Control System (Simon & Schuster, London, 1985).
  • David Holloway, The Soviet Union and the Arms Race (Yale University Press, New Haven 1984).
  • J. D. Boutwell (ed.), The Nuclear Confrontation in Europe (Croom Helm, London, 1983).
  • J. H. Mueller, ‘The Essential Irrelevance of Nuclear Weapons: Stability in the Postwar World’, International Security (1998).
  • J. Newhouse, The Nuclear Age: From Hiroshima to Star Wars (Michael Joseph, London, 1989).
  • M. Trachtenberg, ‘Strategic Thought in America’ Political Science Quarterly (1989).
  • Jonathan Haslam, The Soviet Union and the Politics of Nuclear Weapons in Europe, 1969–1987 (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1989).
  • Marc Trachtenberg, History and Strategy (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1991).
  • Nathan Busch, No End in Sight: the continuing menace of nuclear proliferation (University of Kentucky Press, Lexington, 2004).
  • Nina Tannenwald, The Nuclear Taboo: the US and the non-use of nuclear weapons since 1945 (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
  • R. Jervis, ‘The Military History of the Cold War’ Diplomatic History (1990).
  • Robert Jervis, The Illogic of American Nuclear Strategy (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1984).

On the Eastern bloc:

  • A. Kemp-Welch, Poland under Communism (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
  • Geoffrey and Nigel Swain, Eastern Europe since 1945 (second Edition, Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1995).
  • Kevin McDermott and Matthew Stibbe, eds., Revolution and Resistance in Eastern Europe: challenges to communist rule (Berg, Oxford, 2006).
  • Robert Service, Comrades: Communism, a world history (Pan, London, 2008).
  • Vojtech Mastny and Malcolm Byrne, eds., Cardboard Castle? An inside history of the Warsaw Pact (Central European University Press, Budapest, 2005).
  • Z. A. B. Zeman, The Making and Breaking of Communist Europe (Second Edition, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1991).

On China:

  • Chen Jian, Mao’s China and the Cold War (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2001).
  • Jonathan Fenby, The Penguin History of Modern China: the fall and rise of a great power, 1850-2009 (Penguin, London, 2009).
  • John Garner, Foreign Relations of the People’s Republic of China (Englewood Cliffs, 1993).
  • John Keay, China: a History (Harper, London, 2009).
  • Rana Mitter, A Bitter Revolution: China’s struggle with the modern world (Oxford University Press, 2004).

And on its key political leaders in the Cold War:

  • Gao Wenqian, Zhou Enlai (Public Affairs, New York, 2007).
  • Jung Chang and Jon Haliday, Mao: the unknown story (Cape, London, 2005).
  • Kuo-Kang Shao, Zhou Enlai and the Foundations of Chinese Foreign Policy (St. Martin’s, New York, 1996)
  • Maurice Meisner, Mao Zedong (Polity Press, London, 2007).
  • Desmond Dinan, ed., Origins and Evolution of the European Union (Oxford University Press, 2006).

On European integration see:

  • Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union? An Introduction to European Integration (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1994).
  • Geir Lundestad, Empire by Integration: the US and European integration, 1945-97 (Oxford University Press, 1997).
  • John W. Young, Britain and European Unity, 1945–99 (Macmillan, London, 2000).
  • Martin Dedman, The Origins and Development of the European Union, 1945–95 (Routledge, London, 1996).

On Europe as a whole:

  • John W. Young, Cold War Europe, 1945-91: a political history (Edward Arnold, London, 1996).
  • Tony Judt, Postwar: a history of Europe since 1945 (Vintage, London, 2010).

On the Middle East and the Arab–Israeli Conflict:

  • Adeed Dawisha, Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century (Princeton University Press, 2003).
  • Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (Allen Lane, London, 2000).
  • Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: a History of the Zionist-Arab conflict (John Murray, London, 1999).
  • Douglas Little, American Orientalism: the US and the Middle East since 1945 (University of North Carolina Press, New Haven, 2002).
  • F. Halliday, The Cold War: Global Conflict, Regional Upheavals, (Cambridge, CUP, 2005).
  • Mark A. Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1994).
  • Peter Mansfield and Nicholas Pelham, A History of the Middle East (Penguin, London, 2004).
  • Rashid Khalidi, The Iron Cage: the Palestinian struggle for statehood (Beacon, Boston, 2006).

And on a key, long-lived figure:

  • Nigel Ashton, King Hussein of Jordan (Yale University Press, New Haven, 2008).

On the Far East:

  • John Garner, Foreign Relations of the People’s Republic of China (Englewood Cliffs, 1993).

On Latin America:

  • Benjamin Keen and Keith Haynes, A History of Latin America (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 6th edn., 2000).
  • Greg Grandin, Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the US and the rise of the new imperialism (Metropolitan Books, New York, 2005).
  • Henry Raymont, Troubled Neighbours: the story of US-Latin American relations from FDR to the present (Westview, Boulder, 2005).
  • Leslie Bethell (ed.), The Cambridge History of Latin America (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994).
  • Michael Kryzanek, US-Latin American Relations (Praeger, New York, 1990).
  • Peter Calvert, The International Politics of Latin America (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1994).
  • Peter Smith, Talons of the Eagle: dynamics of US-Latin American relations (Oxford University Press, 2000).
  • Walter LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions: the US in Latin America (Norton, New York, 1993).

On international economic issues:

  • Barry Eichengreen, The European Economy since 1945 (Princeton University Press, 2007).
  • Derek K. Fieldhouse, The West and the Third World (Blackwell, Oxford, 1999).
  • Eric Jones, Lionel Frost, and Colin White, Coming Full Circle: an Economic History of the Pacific Rim (Westview Press, Boulder, 1993).
  • J.A. Frieden, Global Capitalism: its fall and rise in the twentieth century (Norton, New York, 2006).
  • James Foreman-Peck, A History of the World Economy (Harvester Wheatsheaf, London, 1995).
  • Robert Brenner, The Economics of Global Turbulence, 1945-2005 (verso, London, 2006).
  • William Ashworth, A Short History of the World Economy since 1850 (Longman, London, 1991).

On the end of Empire:

  • British Documents on the End of Empire, Series A, vol. 2: R. Hyam (ed.), The Labour Government and the End of Empire (Stationery Office, London, 1992).
  • British Documents on the End of Empire, Series B, vol. 1, R. Rathbone (ed.), Ghana (Stationery Office, London, 1992).
  • J. Darwin, Britain and Decolonisation (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1988).
  • John D. Hargreaves, African Decolonisation (Longman, London, 1996).
  • John Darwin, Britain and Decolonisation (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1988).
  • Robert F. Holland, European Decolonization 1918–1981: an Introductory Survey (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1985).

On the US and the less developed world:

  • Mark Berger, The Battle for Asia: from decolonization to globalization (Routledge, London, 2005).
  • Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: third world interventions and the making of our times (Cambridge University Press, 2005).
  • Peter Hahn and Mary Ann Heiss (eds.), Empire and Revolution: The United States and the Third World since 1945 (Ohio State University Press, Colombus, 2001).
  • Robert J. McMahon, The Limits of Empire: the US and South-East Asia since World War II (Columbia University Press, New York, 1999).

On US foreign policy:

  • John Dumbrell, American Foreign Policy: Carter to Clinton (Palgrave-Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2003).
  • John L. Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: a critical appraisal of American national security policy during the Cold War (second edition, Oxford University Press, 2005).
  • John Spanier and Steve Hook, American Foreign Policy since World War II (Congressional Quarterly, Washington, 1998).
  • Richard A. Melanson, American Foreign Policy since the Vietnam War: the search for consensus from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush (4th Edition, M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, 2nd edn., 2005).
  • Stephen Ambrose and Douglas Brinkley, Rise to Globalism: American foreign policy since 1938 (9th Edition, Penguin, London, 2010).
  • Stephen Ambrose, Rise to Globalism (Penguin, London, 8th edn., 1998).
  • Steven Hook and John Spanier, American Foreign Policy since World War II (19th Edition, Congressional Quarterly, Washington, 2012).

On Soviet foreign policy:

  • Caroline Kennedy-Pipe, Russia and the World, 1917–91 (Arnold, London, 1998).
  • Sven Holtsmark, Iver B. Neumann, and Odd Arne Westad (eds.), The Soviet Union and Europe in the Cold War 1945–1989(Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1994).
  • Vladimir M. Zubok, The Failed Empire: the Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2007).

On American strategy for subversion and intelligence:

  • Richard J. Aldrich, The Hidden Hand Britain America and Cold War Secret Intelligence (John Murray, London, 2001) provides illuminating detail but fails to incorporate into a coherent new analysis.

For the cultural Cold War to which it was linked:

  • H. Krabbendam and G. Scott-Smith, The Cultural Cold War in Western Europe, 1945-60, (London, Routledge, 2004).
  • N. Prevots, Dance for Export: Cultural Diplomacy and the Cold War, (Middeltown, Wesleyan University Press, 2001).
  • P. Major and R. Mitter, Across the Blocs: Exploring Comparative Cold War and Social and Cultural History, (London, Routledge, 2004)
  • Y. Richmond, Cultural Exchange and the Cold War: Raising the Iron Curtain, (Penn., Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003).

On Japan and the American occupation and reconstruction:

  • M. Schaller, The American Occupation of Japan: The Origins of the Cold War in Asia (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1985).
  • W. LaFeber, The Clash: A History of US-Japan Relations (W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1997).
  • Ray Moore and Donald Robinson, Partners for Democracy: crafting the Japanese state under MacArthur (Oxford University Press, 2002).

And, on the Arab-Israeli conflict:

  • Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (Penguin, London, 2001).
  • Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: a history with documents (Seventh edition, Palgrave-Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2010).
  • Mark A. Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Second Edition, Indiana University Press, 2009).
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