The Cold War Era

This concise historical narrative by a prize-winning Cold War historian covers the entire Cold War period from the Yalta conference of 1945 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The book analyzes the Cold War as the primary event and framework that dominated American thought and action for half a century. Preface.

1. Harry S. Truman and the Creation of a Postwar Order.

2. The Cold War Breaks Loose, 1949-54.

3. The Eisenhower Fifties: Consolidation and Confrontation.

4. The 1960s: The Triumph and Tragedy of American Liberalism.

5. America at Bay: The Enigmatic 1970s.

6. Ronald Reagan and the End of the Cold War Era.

Notes.

Selective Bibliography.

Index.

"This concise historical narrative by a prize-winning Cold War historian covers the entire Cold War period from the Yalta Conference of 1945 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. For the student or scholar of American foreign relations, as well as general readers, this book is an excellent introductory overview of a crucially important period in American history." History Online

"Fraser Harbutt covers an immense amount of ground in relatively few pages. This is an excellent overview of the Cold War era, providing a balance between the history of the period and the historiographical debates. Harbutt's account is judicious and fair-minded, though he certainly has a point of view and is not afraid to express it." Richard Polenberg, Cornell University

"Fraser Harbutt's latest book is important and distinctive because it treats the Cold War era as more than diplomatic history. It reveals a mastery of the historical literature, and is a fine read that provides an evenhanded survey of a complex and critical period in American history." Alonzo L. Hamby, University of Ohio

"This in an interesting account and its incorporation of fine summariesof the views of many historians and social thinkers adds to its appeal" Victor Rosenburg, Cleveland, Ohio

Fraser J. Harbutt is Associate Professor of History at Emory University. He is the prize-winning author of The Iron Curtain: Churchill, America, and the Origins of the Cold War (1986). This concise historical narrative by a prize-winning Cold War historian covers the entire Cold War period from the Yalta Conference of 1945 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The book analyzes the Cold War and the various ways that it impacted American life: how it stimulated the economy, was a primary agent of social cohesion (at least until the Vietnam War), greatly inflated presidential power, and was at all times a formidable cultural and intellectual presence. It shows that the Cold War's influence was sometimes palpable, as during the McCarthy years and the Vietnam "conflict," and was at other times merely a backdrop, as during the civil rights movement and the loosening of cultural restraints in the 1960s. The book also explores the uneasy co-existence of the era's conservative American political structure and private realm of techno-business volatility and radical popular culture.

For the student or scholar of American foreign relations, as well as general readers, this book is an excellent introductory overview of a crucially important period in American history.