Dawning of the Cold War: The United States Quest for Order

This highly praised account of the origins of the Cold War is quite simply the best comprehensive history available. Combining a lively narrative with evenhanded analysis, Woods and Jones draw on a vast amount of Cold War scholarship to examine the issues and forces that shaped the East-West confrontation in the years after World War II. From the Yalta Conference to Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech; from the Truman Doctrine to the Marshall Plan; from the formation of NATO to the Berlin blockade, the authors appraise the atomic and economic diplomacy of the Cold War and provide an invaluable guide to one of this century’s most important historical events. “The most satisfactory narrative history we now have of how the Cold War came about in Europe.”—John Lewis Gaddis, American Historical Review . “Balanced and up-to-date … a clearly written and carefully argued history of the origins of the Cold War, the best yet in print.”—Robert A. Divine, University of Texas. “Solidly researched, clearly written … perhaps the best guide [to the Cold War] yet to appear in print.”—Betty Miller Unterberger, Political Science Quarterly .