Beginning in the broken aftermath of the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles that made German recovery almost impossible, Whittock tells not just the account of the men who rose to the fore in the dangerous days of the Weimar republic, circling around the cult of personality generated by Adolf Hitler, but also a convincing and personality-driven overview of how ordinary Germans became seduced by the dreams of a new world order, the Third Reich. The book also gives a fascinating insight into the everyday life in Germany during the Second World War and explores key questions such as how much did the Germans know about the Holocaust and why did the regime eventually fail so disastrously?

Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1933-1945 is an abridged edition of Saul Friedl#65533;nder's definitive Pulitzer Prize-winning two-volume history of the Holocaust: Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Persecution, 1933-1939 and The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945. The book's first part, dealing with the National Socialist campaign of oppression, restores the voices of Jews who were engulfed in an increasingly horrifying reality following the Nazi accession to power. Friedl#65533;nder also provides the accounts of the persecutors themselves--and, perhaps most telling of all, the testimonies of ordinary German citizens who, in general, stood silent and unmoved by the increasing waves of segregation, humiliation, impoverishment, and violence. The second part covers the German extermination policies that resulted in the murder of six million European Jews--an official program that depended upon the cooperation of local authorities and police departments, the passivity of the populations, and the willingness of the victims to submit in desperate hope of surviving long enough to escape the German vise. A monumental, multifaceted study now contained in a single volume, Saul Friedl#65533;nder's Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1933-1945 is an essential study of a dark and complex history.

On November 9th and 10th, 1938, the first act of the Holocaust was carried out. Across Germany and Austria over 1,200 synagogues were desecrated while thousands of Jewish businesses were attacked and looted, 90 people were killed and over 25,000 Jewish men were deported to concentration camps. The Jewish Central Information Office, later re-named The Wiener Library, immediately compiled eye-witness testimonies of the events: from face to face and telephone interviews, letters, written reports and newspaper articles. Some are raw and angry, some beg for help, others are defiant; their voices vividly bring to life the destruction that followed. Accompanied by material from the Library's collection that sets the events in a historical and international context, as well as a detailed glossary.

Explaining the complex political and social backdrop that allowed the Holocaust to occur, as well as its progression and aftermath, this comprehensive volume contains first-hand testimony from survivors and enables readers to appreciate the impact of the Holocaust on real people and the lives they and their families have rebuilt today.

Describes the Holocaust when six million human beings were killed in the name of racial purity under the direction of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.

The World Almanac Library of the Holocaust tells the story of the horrific mass murder of millions of people at the hands of the Nazis, with special emphasis on the attempted genocide against the Jewish people. Written in clear, narrative style and complemented by primary source documents and period photography, this series gives a realistic and sensitive account of the Holocaust. From the rise of Nazi anti-Semitism in Germany to the shocking atrocities committed in the concentration camps, this series attempts to explain the unexplainable-how an event as terrible as the Holocaust ever could have occurred.

The World Almanac Library of the Holocaust tells the story of the horrific mass murder of millions of people at the hands of the Nazis, with special emphasis on the attempted genocide against the Jewish people. Written in clear, narrative style and complemented by primary source documents and period photography, this series gives a realistic and sensitive account of the Holocaust. From the rise of Nazi anti-Semitism in Germany to the shocking atrocities committed in the concentration camps, this series attempts to explain the unexplainable-how an event as terrible as the Holocaust ever could have occurred.

The World Almanac Library of the Holocaust tells the story of the horrific mass murder of millions of people at the hands of the Nazis, with special emphasis on the attempted genocide against the Jewish people. Written in clear, narrative style and complemented by primary source documents and period photography, this series gives a realistic and sensitive account of the Holocaust. From the rise of Nazi anti-Semitism in Germany to the shocking atrocities committed in the concentration camps, this series attempts to explain the unexplainable-how an event as terrible as the Holocaust ever could have occurred.

The World Almanac Library of the Holocaust tells the story of the horrific mass murder of millions of people at the hands of the Nazis, with special emphasis on the attempted genocide against the Jewish people. Written in clear, narrative style and complemented by primary source documents and period photography, this series gives a realistic and sensitive account of the Holocaust. From the rise of Nazi anti-Semitism in Germany to the shocking atrocities committed in the concentration camps, this series attempts to explain the unexplainable-how an event as terrible as the Holocaust ever could have occurred.

This book examines the changes in weapons and tactics that impacted the way war was waged during World War II. Read and discover: what the "wolf packs" that cruised the Atlantic Ocean were; how code-breakers changed the course of the war; what Hitler's secret weapon was.

Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin in his London laboratory in 1928 and its eventual development as the first antibiotic by a team at Oxford University headed by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain in 1942 led to the introduction of the most important family of drugs of the twentieth century. Yet credit for penicillin is largely misplaced. Neither Fleming nor Florey and his associates ever made real money from their achievements; instead it was the American labs that won patents on penicillin's manufacture and drew royalties from its sale. Why this happened, why it took fourteen years to develop penicillin, and how it was finally done is a fascinating story of quirky individuals, missed opportunities, medical prejudice, brilliant science, shoestring research, wartime pressures, misplaced modesty, conflicts between mentors and their protégés, and the passage of medicine from one era to the next.

Recalls the group of scientists whose invention of radar during World War II contributed to the Allied victory, and chronicles their post-war achievements.

For almost four desperate years, from 1939 to the middle of 1943, the British and, in time, American navies fought a savage, losing battle against German U-boat wolf-packs. The Allies might never have turned the tide without an intelligence coup. The race to break the German U-boat codes is one of the greatest untold stories of the Second World War. Soon after war broke out, Hitler's U-boats began to sever Allied lifelines. To meet the growing crisis, ingenious amateurs joined the nucleus of dedicated professionals at Bletchley Park. As the Battle of the Atlantic raged, they raced to unlock the continually changing German naval codes. Their mission: to read the U-boat messages of Hitler's cipher device, the Enigma.

The first deployment of the V-1 was in June 1944 when, following two years of tests, Hitler gave the order to attack England. Known to the Allies as the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug, the V-1 was the world's first cruise missile. This book explores the V-1 in detail, from its initial concept, first use in 1944, the various Allied counter-measures, and the later use of the V-1 during the Battle of the Bulge. The major foreign derivatives, including the US copy JB-2 Loon and numerous post-war Soviet variants, are also covered.

Among the most sophisticated aircraft flown during World War II, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress was designed to replace the B-17 as the primary long-range bomber of the U.S. Army Air Forces. With its distinctive glazed nose and long, thin wings that provided both speed at high altitude and stability at takeoff and landing, the Superfortress was the first operational bomber with a pressurized crew cabin and featured advanced radar and avionics. Armed with remote-controlled machine gun turrets and a 20,000 pound bomb load, it was the first USAAF bomber capable of mastering the vast distances of the Pacific Theater of World War II.

An American classic! This new book is a detailed, highly illustrated look at the legendary World War II era Jeep. Detailed text discusses Jeep planning, development and production, then moves into its World War II variants, specialized equipment, accessories and use by other Allied forces. Nearly 200 high-quality color and war-era photos show the Jeep in its many functions. Up-close, detailed images show the differences between variant types. This book is a concise reference for the Jeep enthusiast, historian and restorer.

The wide range of full color illustrations provides the military enthusiast with a vivid visual record of the innovations in the field from the days of the first motorised vechicles.

ON the morning of August 13, 1961, the residents of East Berlin found themselves cut off from family, friends, and jobs in the West by a tangle of barbed wire that ruthlessly split a city of four million in two. Within days the barbed-wire entanglement would undergo an extraordinary metamorphosis: it became an imposing 103-mile-long wall guarded by three hundred watchtowers. A physical manifestation of the struggle between Soviet Communism and American capitalism that stood for nearly thirty years, the Berlin Wall was the high-risk fault line between East and West on which rested the fate of all humanity. In this captivating work, sure to be the definitive history on the subject, Frederick Taylor weaves together official history, archival materials, and personal accounts to tell the complete story of the Wall's rise and fall.

Few historical changes occur literally overnight, but on 13 August 1961 eighteen million East Germans awoke to find themselves walled in by an edifice which was to become synonymous with the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. This new history rejects traditional, top-down approaches to Cold War politics, exploring instead how the border closure affected ordinary East Germans, from workers and farmers to teenagers and even party members, 'caught out' by Sunday the Thirteenth. Party, police, and Stasi reports reveal whyone in six East Germans fled the country during the 1950s, undermining communist rule and forcing the eleventh-hour decision by Khrushchev and Ulbricht to build a wall along the Cold War's frontline. Did East Germans resist or come to terms with immurement? Did the communist regime become more or less dictatorial within the confines of the so-called 'Antifascist Defence Rampart'? Using film and literature, but also the GDR's losing battle against Beatlemania, Patrick Major's cross-disciplinarystudy suggests that popular culture both reinforced and undermined the closed society. Linking external and internal developments, Major argues that the GDR's official quest for international recognition, culminating in Ostpolitik and United Nations membership in the early 1970s, became its undoing,unleashing a human rights movement which fed into, but then broke with, the protests of 1989. After exploring the reasons for the fall of the Wall and reconstructing the heady days of the autumn revolution, the author reflects on the fate of the Wall after 1989, as it moved from demolition into therealm of memory.

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award One of the New York Times' Ten Best Books of the Year Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world's most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through thirty-four nations and sixty years of political and cultural change-all in one integrated, enthralling narrative. Both intellectually ambitious and compelling to read, thrilling in its scope and delightful in its small details, Postwar is a rare joy.  

Half a million Australians encountered a new world when they entered Asia and the Pacific during World War II: different peoples, cultures, languages, and religions chafing under the grip of colonial rule. This book paints a picture not only of individual lives transformed, but of dramatically shifting national perceptions, as the gaze of Australia turned from Britain to Asia.

In the campaign against Japan in the Pacific during the Second World War, the armed forces of the United States, Australia, and the Australian colonies of Papua and New Guinea made use of indigenous peoples in new capacities. The United States had long used American Indians as soldiers and scouts in frontier conflicts and in wars with other nations. With the advent of the Navajo Code Talkers in the Pacific theater, Native servicemen were now being employed for contributions that were unique to their Native cultures. In contrast, Australia, Papua, and New Guinea had long attempted to keep indigenous peoples out of the armed forces altogether. With the threat of Japanese invasion, however, they began to bring indigenous peoples into the military as guerilla patrollers, coastwatchers, and regular soldiers. Defending Whose Country? is a comparative study of the military participation of Papua New Guineans, Yolngu, and Navajos in the Pacific theater. In examining the decisions of state and military leaders to bring indigenous peoples into military service, as well as the decisions of indigenous individuals to serve in the armed forces, Noah Riseman reconsiders the impact of the largely forgotten contributions of indigenous soldiers in the Second World War.  

In 1942, the shadow of modern war reached Australia's shores for the first time. In this compelling volume, leading historians explore why 1942 was such a pivotal year in Australia's history and explain how the nation confronted some of its greatest challenges. This broad ranging study covers key issues from political, economic and home front reform to the establishment of a new partnership with the United States; the role of the Air Force and the Navy; the bombing of Darwin; as well as the battles of Kokoda, Milne Bay, the Beachheads and Guadalcanal. Australia 1942 provides a unique and in-depth exploration of the controversy surrounding the potential for invasion. Japanese and Australian historians offer perspectives on Japanese military intentions and strategies towards Australia and the South Pacific.

On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atom bomb ever dropped on a city. This book, John Hersey's journalistic masterpiece, tells what happened on that day. Told through the memories of survivors, this timeless, powerful and compassionate document has become a classic "that stirs the conscience of humanity."

In 1945 Imperial Japan was making every effort to seek an honorable surrender while the United States was trying to decide whether or not to drop the atomic bomb. While the main focus remains on the political aspects of the decision President Harry Truman was about to make, the author also focuses on the logistics and military situation of the United States and Japan during the last year of the war. The Potsdam Conference plays a key role in the unfolding drama of the Imperial decisions that led to Japan's surrender. Dennis D. Wainstock teaches at Salem-Tieyko University in Salem, West Virginia.

Provides detailed information of the development of the atomic bomb, along with the dropping of this weapon in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Includes source notes and timeline.

From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima takes readers on an up-close-and-personal journey through the relentless war against Japan in the Pacific Islands, the capstone to Allied victory in World War II. Here is the story of the heroic men who toiled on islands whose names have become synonymous with bloodshed, hardship, and indomitable spirit. This inspiring heart-and-gut wrenching story is brought to life by the addition of 20 carefully selected facsimile pieces of memorabilia, including Franklin D. Roosevelt's draft, with handwritten notes, of his "Day of Infamy” speech, and 6 situation maps. Also features a foreword by Captain Dale Dye, senior military advisor on HBO's The Pacific.

Drawing on primary sources and startling photographs, a renowned authority investigates the events that led up to the disaster at Hiroshima in 1945 -- and discusses the consequences we are still living with today.

The author recounts the story of how the atomic bomb was developed, from the discovery at the turn of century of the vast energy locked inside the atom, to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan during the Second World War.

In a riveting narrative that includes information from newly declassified documents, acclaimed historian Richard B. Frank gives a scrupulously detailed explanation of the critical months leading up to the dropping of the atomic bomb. Frank explains how American leaders learned in the summer of 1945 that their alternate strategy to end the war by invasion had been shattered by the massive Japanese buildup on Kyushu, and that intercepted diplomatic documents also revealed the dismal prospects of negotiation. Here also, for the first time, is a comprehensive account of how Japan's leaders were willing to risk complete annihilation to preserve the nation's existing order. Frank's comprehensive account demolishes long-standing myths with the stark realities of this great historical controversy.

A new paperback edition of one of the bestselling World War II Osprey titles, The Pacific War Companion brings together the perspectives and insights of world-renowned military historians. From the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor through the release of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the conflict in the Pacific was marked by amazing tactical innovations, such as those in amphibious warfare, and horrific battles that raged in the unforgiving climate of the island jungles. Each chapter in this book focuses on a different aspect of this conflict, from the planning of operations to the experiences of the men who were there.

August 6, 1945, was the day the world was forever changed.  The first atomic bomb ever used in the history of warfare was released over the city of Hiroshima, Japan.  Only twelve men were privileged to be on that historic flight, and only one was allowed to be the radio operator.  Richard H. Nelson invites the reader into his life and gives his unique perspective on that infamous day when Japan was brought to their knees, finally bringing the bloodiest war in the history of the world to a conclusion.  

The Atomic Bombings Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki The Manhattan Engineer District, June 29, 1946 Everything you need to know about an atomic attack on a real inhabited City Including Eye Witness Accounts, Propaganda, Summary of Damages and Injuries, Target Selection, Description of the Cities Before the Bombings, General Description of Damage Caused by the Atomic Explosions, Total Casualties, The Nature of an Atomic Explosion, Characteristics of the Damage Caused by the Atomic Bombs, Calculations of the Peak Pressure of the Blast Wave, Long Range Blast Damage, Ground Shock, Shielding, or Screening, from the Blast, Flash Burn, Characteristics of Injuries to Persons, Burns, Mechanical Injuries, Blast Injuries, Radiation Injuries, Shielding from Radiation, Effects of the Atomic Bombings on the Inhabitants of the Cities. The Complete US Report

The decades-long Cold War was more than a bipolar conflict between two Superpowers-it had implications for the entire world. Cold War goes beyond US-USSR relations to explore the Cold War from an international perspective, including developments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Fink also offers a broader time line of the Cold War than any other text, charting the lead-up to the conflict from the Russian Revolution to World War II and discussing the aftermath of the Cold War up to the present day.

The Cold War is one of the furthest-reaching and longest-lasting conflicts in modern history. It spanned the globe - from Greece to China, Hungary to Cuba - and lasted for almost half a century. It has shaped political relations to this day, drawing new physical and ideological boundaries between East and West. In this meticulously researched account, Bridget Kendall explores the Cold War through the eyes of those who experienced it first-hand. Alongside in-depth analysis that explains the historical and political context, the book draws on exclusive interviews with individuals who lived through the conflict's key events, offering a variety of perspectives that reveal how the Cold War was experienced by ordinary people. From pilots making food drops during the Berlin Blockade and Japanese fishermen affected by H-bomb testing to families fleeing the Korean War and children whose parents were victims of McCarthy's Red Scare, The Cold War covers the full geographical and historical reach of the conflict.

From a Bancroft Prize-winning scholar, a new global history of the Cold War and its ongoing impact around the world. We tend to think of the Cold War as a bounded conflict: a clash of two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, born out of the ashes of World War II and coming to a dramatic end with the collapse of the Soviet Union. But in this major new work, Bancroft Prize-winning scholar Odd Arne Westad argues that the Cold War must be understood as a global ideological confrontation, with early roots in the Industrial Revolution and ongoing repercussions around the world. In The Cold War, Westad offers a new perspective on a century when great power rivalry and ideological battle transformed every corner of our globe. From Soweto to Hollywood, Hanoi, and Hamburg, young men and women felt they were fighting for the future of the world. The Cold War may have begun on the perimeters of Europe, but it had its deepest reverberations in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, where nearly every community had to choose sides. And these choices continue to define economies and regimes across the world. Today, many regions are plagued with environmental threats, social divides, and ethnic conflicts that stem from this era. Its ideologies influence China, Russia, and the United States; Iraq and Afghanistan have been destroyed by the faith in purely military solutions that emerged from the Cold War. Stunning in its breadth and revelatory in its perspective, this book expands our understanding of the Cold War both geographically and chronologically, and offers an engaging new history of how today's world was created.

Michael Dockrill's concise study of the early years of the Cold War between the Western Powers and Soviet Union has been widely acclaimed as an authoritative guide to the subject. In this second edition, he and Michael Hopkins bring the story up to the events of 1991, and also expand coverage of key topics.

The Cold War contains a selection of official and unofficial documents which provide a truly multi-faceted account of the entire Cold War era. This volume presents the different kinds of materials necessary to understand what the Cold War was about, how it was fought, and the ways in which itaffected the lives of people around the globe.By depicting the experiences of East Berlin housewives and South African students, as well as those of political leaders from Europe and the Third World, The Cold War emphasizes the variety of ways in which the Cold War conflict was experienced. The significance of these differences is essential tounderstanding the Cold War: it demonstrates how the causes of the clash may have looked very different in Santiago from the way they looked in Seoul, New York, Moscow, or Beijing. The book examines the entirety of the Cold War era, presenting documents from the end of World War II right up to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. A final selection of source material goes on to illustrate the impact of the Cold War to the present day. Again, the emphasis is global: thereare documents on the aftermath of the Cold War in Africa and Europe, as well as on the links between the Cold War and the dramatic events of 11 September 2001.By providing a truly international glimpse of the Cold War and its various actors and subjects, The Cold War helps cut through the often simplistic notions of the recent past and allows the reader to explore the truly global impact of the East-West confrontation that dominated internationalrelations in the second half of the twentieth century.

Exam Board: AQA, Edexcel, OCR & WJEC Level: A-level Subject: History First Teaching: September 2015 First Exam: June 2016 Give your students the best chance of success with this tried and tested series, combining in-depth analysis, engaging narrative and accessibility. Access to History is the most popular, trusted and wide-ranging series for A-level History students. This title: - Supports the content and assessment requirements of the 2015 A-level History specifications - Contains authoritative and engaging content - Includes thought-provoking key debates that examine the opposing views and approaches of historians - Provides exam-style questions and guidance for each relevant specification to help students understand how to apply what they have learnt This title is suitable for a variety of courses including: - AQA: The Cold War, c1945-1991 - OCR: The Cold War in Europe 1941-1995

How, when, and why did the Cold War begin? Why did it last so long? What impact did it have on the United States, the Soviet Union, Europe, and the Third World? Finally, what difference did it make to the broader history of the second half of the twentieth century? This clear and stimulating interpretive overview of the Cold War will both invite debate and encourage deeper investigation.

The Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the United States indelibly shaped the world we live in today--especially international politics, economics, and military affairs. This volume shows how the globalization of the Cold War during the 20th century created the foundations for most of today's key international conflicts, including the "war on terror." Odd Arne Westad examines the origins and course of Third World revolutions and the ideologies that drove the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. towards interventionism. He focuses on how these interventions gave rise to resentments and resistance that, in the end, helped to topple one and to seriously challenge the other superpower. In addition, he demonstrates how these worldwide interventions determined the international and domestic framework within which political, social and cultural changes took place in such countries as China, Indonesia, Iran, Ethiopia, Angola, Cuba, and Nicaragua. According to Westad, these changes, plus the ideologies, movements and states that interventionism stirred up, constitute the real legacy of the Cold War. Odd Arne Westad is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 2004 he was named head of department and co-director of the new LSE Cold War Studies Centre. Professor Westad is the author, or editor, of ten books on contemporary international history including Decisive Encounters: The Chinese Civil War, 1946-1950 (2003) and, with Jussi Hanhimaki, The Cold War: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts (2003). In addition, he is a founding editor of the journal Cold War History.

After years of rapprochement, the relationship between Russia and the West is more strained now than it has been in the past 25 years. Putin's motives, his reasons for seeking confrontation with the West, remain for many a mystery. Not for Mikhail Gorbachev. In this new work, Russia's elder statesman draws on his wealth of knowledge and experience to reveal the development of Putin's regime and the intentions behind it. He argues that Putin has significantly diminished the achievements of perestroika and is part of an over-centralized system that presents a precarious future for Russia. Faced with this, Gorbachev advocates a radical reform of politics and a new fostering of pluralism and social democracy. Gorbachev's insightful analysis moves beyond internal politics to address wider problems in the region, including the Ukraine conflict, as well as the global challenges of poverty and climate change. Above all else, he insists that solutions are to be found by returning to the atmosphere of dialogue and cooperation which was so instrumental in ending the Cold War.  This book represents the summation of Gorbachev's thinking on the course that Russia has taken since 1991 and stands as a testament to one of the greatest and most influential statesmen of the twentieth century.

The Cold War: 1945 - 1991 is written with close and clear alignment to the NSW Stage 6 Modern History course. The text incorporates classic and recent historical interpretations and are supported by regular and relevant visual and primary sources extracts, with accompanying activities. Chapter 1 of the student books surveys the origins of the Cold War and early flashpoints, including the Berlin blockade and the Korean War. Subsequent chapters address the focus of study by examining the key developments of The Cold War, detente and its impact and reasons for the conflicts end.

When Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union in 1985, the USSR was one of the world's two superpowers. By 1989, his liberal policies of perestroika and glasnost had permanently transformed Soviet Communism, and had made enemies of radicals on the right and left. By 1990 he, more than anyone else, had ended the Cold War, and in 1991, after barely escaping from a coup attempt, he unintentionally presided over the collapse of the Soviet Union he had tried to save. In the first comprehensive biography of the final Soviet leader, William Taubman shows how a peasant boy became the Soviet system's gravedigger, how he clambered to the top of a system designed to keep people like him down, how he found common ground with America's arch-conservative president Ronald Reagan, and how he permitted the USSR and its East European empire to break apart without using force to preserve them.

'When the Nazi power was broken, I asked myself what was the best advice I could give to my fellow citizens here in this island and across the channel in our ravaged continent. There was no difficulty in answering the question. My counsel to Europe can be given in a single word: Unite!' Sir Winston Churchill in 1947 After the Second World War, with much of Europe in ruins, the victorious Winston Churchill swore to build a peace across Europe that would last a generation. Fighting against the new 'Iron Curtain' which had fallen across the world, and battling the personal disappointment of losing the 1945 election in Britain, Churchill dedicated the rest of his life to forging a united Europe. This book, based in part on new evidence, reveals his vision: Britain as a leading member of the European family. Through Churchill's own private papers, Felix Klos unveils Churchill's personal battle to regain his place in world affairs, his confidential conversations with European leaders and the thinking and preparation behind some of his most powerful speeches. A beautifully written history of Europe after the war, and a new glimpse at one of its greatest statesmen.

Drawing on newly opened archives and the reminiscences of the major players, John Lewis Gaddis explains not just what happened but why—from the months in 1945 when the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. went from alliance to antagonism to the barely averted holocaust of the Cuban Missile Crisis to the maneuvers of Nixon and Mao, Reagan and Gorbachev.

Twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall fell and Communism in Europe began to collapse.The Cold Warcelebrates that anniversary with a graphic account of the long-running global drama that played from the end of World War II until the era of Gorbachev and glasnost. During that time, such high-tension events as the Cuban Missile Crisis brought us to the brink of Armageddon—but both sides always drew back. Follow spread by spread the development of each important stage in the long, chilly conflict that divided the world into two spheres of influence.  More than 30 facsimile items of Cold War memorabilia allow readers to hold and examine diaries, letters, telegrams, decoded intercepts, and newspapers that, up till now, were confined to filing cabinets and museum exhibitions.

Covering politics, music, literature and art, he explores the myths Russians have created from their history.Marking the twentieth anniversary of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the complex political landscape of Russia and its unique place in the modern world.

Few historical changes occur literally overnight, but on 13 August 1961 eighteen million East Germans awoke to find themselves walled in by an edifice which was to become synonymous with the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. This new history rejects traditional, top-down approaches to Cold War politics, exploring instead how the border closure affected ordinary East Germans, from workers and farmers to teenagers and even party members, 'caught out' by Sunday the Thirteenth. Party, police, and Stasi reports reveal whyone in six East Germans fled the country during the 1950s, undermining communist rule and forcing the eleventh-hour decision by Khrushchev and Ulbricht to build a wall along the Cold War's frontline. Did East Germans resist or come to terms with immurement? Did the communist regime become more or less dictatorial within the confines of the so-called 'Antifascist Defence Rampart'? Using film and literature, but also the GDR's losing battle against Beatlemania, Patrick Major's cross-disciplinarystudy suggests that popular culture both reinforced and undermined the closed society. Linking external and internal developments, Major argues that the GDR's official quest for international recognition, culminating in Ostpolitik and United Nations membership in the early 1970s, became its undoing,unleashing a human rights movement which fed into, but then broke with, the protests of 1989. After exploring the reasons for the fall of the Wall and reconstructing the heady days of the autumn revolution, the author reflects on the fate of the Wall after 1989, as it moved from demolition into therealm of memory.

The peace achieved at the end of World War II quickly gave way to a tense standoff between the democratic West and the Communist East. This anthology covers an era of international intrigue and domestic turmoil as America faced not only a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union, but war in Southeast Asia and race riots at home.

For half a century the Soviet economy was inefficient but stable. In the late 1980s, to the surprise of nearly everyone, it suddenly collapsed. Why did this happen? And what role did Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's economic reforms play in the country's dissolution? In this groundbreaking study, Chris Miller shows that Gorbachev and his allies tried to learn from the great success story of transitions from socialism to capitalism, Deng Xiaoping's China. Why, then, were efforts to revitalize Soviet socialism so much less successful than in China? Making use of never-before-studied documents from the Soviet politburo and other archives, Miller argues that the difference between the Soviet Union and China--and the ultimate cause of the Soviet collapse--was not economics but politics.

A Short History of the Twentieth Century carries some of the excitement of the times as well as the power of unforeseen events. The theme that dominates much of the book is war and peace—a nervous peace—which gripped the attention of most people who lived through a large part of the century. Mr. Blainey’s talent for identifying the telling detail, the crucial event, the key personality makes for masterful storytelling, and his interest ranges wide over the fields of human activity; he is concerned not only with major transformations but also with the everyday experiences of people around the world. Taking the story from the dawn of a century ripe with promise, especially for Europeans, he shows how and why empires soon fell, igniting wars and revolutions that continued intermittently through the period; economic depressions that brought great powers to their knees; totalitarian governments that doled out misery to their citizens; a Middle East in turmoil; and a resurgent Islam.

Peter Kenez's History of the Soviet Union examines not only political change, but also social and cultural developments. The book identifies the social tensions and political inconsistencies that spurred radical change in the government of Russia, beginning at the turn of the century, culminating in the revolution of 1917. Kenez envisions that revolution as a crisis of authority that posed the question, 'Who shall govern Russia'? This question was resolved with the creation of the Soviet Union. Kenez traces the development of the Soviet Union from the Revolution, through the 1920s, the years of the New Economic Policies - which he sees as crucial to any interpretation of the history of the Soviet Union - and into the Stalinist order. He shows how post-Stalin Soviet leaders struggled to find ways to rule the country without using Stalin's methods but also without openly repudiating the past, and to negotiate a peaceful but antipathetic coexistence with the capitalist West.

The nature of Stalin's Russia has provoked controversy since the early 1930s, and continues to fascinate historians today. This book looks at the Stalinist dictatorship from three different perspectives. Section one focuses on interpretations of Stalin's character in order to explain the everlasting puzzle of the relationship between events and personality. Section two looks at Stalin's role within the Soviet Union, and sees him only as one part (albeit an important one) of a complex culture of politics and administration. The final section examines the ways in which the Soviet people handled socialism, and how Stalinism functioned on the ground.

The Soviet experiment, which ended in 1991, was the most serious attempt ever made to build an ideal society. Power and Privilege is a coherent interpretation of both the Russian and Soviet Empires, explaining what went wrong with the experiment, and how it affected the lives of ordinary men and women.

Key images, professional opinions, and participant experiences enliven this title's discussion of spying, the space race, conflicts in Vietnam and Korea and more. Genocide, intentional nuclear destruction, world war -- what inspired such events and what was left in their wake? How Did It Happen? investigates these questions and others as it probes some of the major turning points in modern history. Encouraging readers to develop interpretive and critical thinking skills, this series from Lucent Books combines primary source materials, full-color images, expert opinions and narrative explanation of the causes and effects of key economic, political and militaristic events in 20th-century history.

Explores the questions surrounding the Cold War era, focusing on the politics between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Examines the events leading up to the Cold War, including the arms race, the first H-bomb test, the war in Vietnam, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.