Dawning Of The Cold War

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.

The best comprehensive account in print, Dawning of the Cold War draws 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. The most satisfactory narrative history we now have of how the Cold War came about in Europe. --John Lewis Gaddis, American Historical Review

Library Journal

Woods and Jones have written a solidly researched and very concise survey of the origins of the Cold War in Europe during the 1944-49 period. Claiming their book to be the first comprehensive account since Thomas G. Paterson's On Every Front: The Making of the Cold War ( LJ 10/15/79), the authors reveal a sound knowledge of both the primary and secondary sources on the period. Although they do not offer important new findings or interpretations, their book is excellent for the general reader or undergraduate who can read only one book on this important issue. Recommended for international affairs collections.-- Richard Weitz, Harvard Univ.

Randall B. Woods is John A. Cooper, Sr., Professor of Diplomacy at the University of Arkansas. Howard Jones is University Research Professor of History at the University of Alabama. Each has written several books on American foreign policy.