Customer Reviews

Russia, America, and the Cold War, 1949-1991 (Seminar Studies in History)

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4 star:		(3)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book might merit two stars but certainly not more. There are a couple critical problems:

1) Writing Style - McCauley writes like a non-native English speaker and there is noticeable lack of editing. Many common expressions are slightly mis-used or missing prepositions or occaisionally whole words in phrases are missing. I find that this significantly slows down my reading because I mentally say "huh?" and re-read sentences that didn't appear to be correct the first time. McCauley also randomly lumps un-related issues together with no transitions; there will be a paragraph on Russian arms treaty negotation that trails off into a discussion of the Russian economy. Obviously the reader could infer that this might be relevant because poor economic performance incentivized Russia to reduce arms spending but it is never clear in these small instances why McCauley lumps various issues together.

2) Not a very good standalone book - This book might be ok used in conjunction with another textbook but if you aren't already familiar with Soviet government structure or many minor political figures in the USSR and client states you won't learn anything about them here.

3) Organization - this partly relates to what I said above; McCauley frequently drops mention of relatively minor political figures with no introduction. In addition, he writes with a strange mix of repeating, overlapping chronologies. He'll discuss a 10 year period of history rather thoroughly and then discuss it all over again with respect to another issue. This is difficult to avoid in this sort of work but he does it less transparently than a good author should.

4) Poor indexing job - in the age of computer indexing systems I don't really know how you can mess this up so badly - there are a number of figures mentioned in the book who do not appear in the index. This is annoying when you want to see if McCauley introduced a particular person earlier before assuming you knew about them (don't worry, he probably didn't).

Overall this book gives the impression that it was written by a smart person in about 2 days with little editing. It is not up to the standards of this series and certainly doesn't provide the depth of perspectives you would expect from a college level seminar.

A good overview of the main events of this period: if you're just generally curious about the Cold War and what the main events and trends in it were, this is quite suitable. However, the sheer brevity of the format of this series of books (and 'Seminar Studies' is very good, believe me) works against a fully fleshed-out account of this topic. There are mentions of certain events but they lack a little background needed to explain them. I kept finding myself reading some remark and thinking 'But *why* did that happen?'. Still, a good read, and well-explained.

As an AP American Hisitory teacher, I was looking for a concise book that would give my students a good overview of the Cold War. This turned out to be an excellent book, well suited for my purpose. I have my students read three books over the summer as they prepare for my class, this was one of the three. McCauley gives a concise account of the Cold War, starting with the Berlin crisis of 1948 and ending with the fall of the Soviet Union. His chronological framework to the book takes the reader through some very difficult sernerios for the United States. McCauley starts off with some background material, giving the reader eight theories about the reasons for the Cold War, some give the reader many interesting things to think about as they go through the book. McCauley then goes through the Cold War and breaks it down into five generalized time periods. This makes it easier for students that may not know much about the time period to understand the Cold War. McCauley ends the book by asking seven challanging questions for the reader to ponder. This gives the reader a chance to digest the information and helps the reader come to some interesting conclusions. The sixteen documents that McCauley provides also gives the readers of the book different ideas and causes as well as consequences of the Cold War that may have been missed in this short but excellent overview of the Cold War.

As a student taking a first year University course in which this book is an assigned text, I have to say: there must be a textbook that is less boring than this one. In terms of facts, this book is great. Style-wise, it is enough to lull one to sleep. Best read in sections, carefully, closely, and with attention to detail so one doesn't have to read this book more than once, I would strongly suggest to any teacher or professor considering this as a text to supplement it with something that has a radically different style. Perhaps something with historical accounts intercut with the actual text rather than documents tacked on at the end. Just my opinion of course. :)

Studying for my exams, this book gives a pretty good overview of the Cold War and the significant events that took place, all at a good pace. By moving chronologically and according to the different stages of the CW (as sectioned), it makes it easier to comprehend some of the periods where the tension increased all the way to the fall of the SU. Generally it was a good, informative read, and not to mention, entertaining at points- I found out that "the greatest disappointment for Khrushchev was that his ardent desire to visit Disneyland was frustrated- the Americans said they could not guarantee his safety". Furthermore, the book also includes a chronology, several documents from the period, and answers some questions which may be worth pondering over when dealing with the subject.