The Cold War Through Documents - 4th Edition by Edward H Judge & John W Langdon (Paperback)

About the Book

This is a comprehensive collection of more than 100 documents (speeches, treaties, statements, and articles), making the great events of the era come alive. Coverage traces the Cold War from its roots in East-West tensions, to World War II, through the immediate postwar era, up to and including the collapse of the Soviet Union during 1989-1991.

Book Synopsis

This text is a comprehensive collection of more than 100 carefully edited documents (speeches, treaties, statements, and articles), making the great events of the era come alive through the words and phrases of those who were actively involved. Coverage traces the Cold War from its roots in East-West tensions before and during World War II through its origins in the immediate postwar era, up to and including the collapse of the Soviet Union during 1989-1991.

Review Quotes

"This volume offers well-chosen primary sources from a wide range of Cold War arenas. The documents are compact, balanced, and ideal for stimulating student discussion in college-level courses. The new fourth edition expands the thematic range to include home fronts, the space race, the peace movement, South African apartheid, Soviet dissidents, and the post-Cold-War expansion of NATO. Simply the most comprehensive one-volume collection of Cold War primary sources available." --Benjamin Nathans, University of Pennsylvania

"I have assigned The Cold War Through Documents through each successive edition for its excellent concentration on political dimensions of the Cold War through treaty texts, governmental or party declarations, newspaper and journal articles, and addresses delivered by key political figures. When paired with a text that provides essential narratives and supplemented by cultural historical readings, this collection is an essential tool for introducing the subject with sufficient depth and appropriately global focus. The editors have chosen all the documents with great care: there is no superfluous material in this book. For instructors and students alike, the discussion questions are not only insightful for use in the class, but they also highlight the most important issues in each document. It would also make a wonderful text for courses on Modern European or Global History, political science, as well as military history." --Matthew P. Berg, John Carroll University

"The fourth edition greatly improves an already outstanding book with a wealth of new materials that include documents relating to the beginning of the nuclear age, sputnik and the space race, apartheid in South Africa, President Kennedy's civil defense initiatives, Soviet dissidents, controversies involving NATO's expansion at the end of the Cold War, and the reunification of Germany" --Kenneth Atkinson, University of Northern Iowa

"The greatest strength of this text is the wide range of sources it draws on, not just from the US, USSR, or even China, but also through Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe. This approach allows students to see, analyze, and understand the ways the Cold War was less a "chessboard" between the US and USSR in the ways all too many textbooks portray it, and instead a very complicated web of national, regional, and global struggles between countries with differing visions of development, modernity, and society." --Colin Snider, The University of Texas at Tyler

About the Author

Edward H. Judge is professor of history and John W. Langdon is professor emeritus of history at Le Moyne College. Their books include Connections: A World History and A Hard and Bitter Peace: A Global History of the Cold War.