This is a masterful account of the Cold War by a distinguished historian in full stride. Leffler focuses on critical turning points when crises, leadership changes, . For the Soul of Mankind has ratings and 17 reviews. The distinguished historian Melvyn P. Leffler homes in on four crucial episodes To the amazement of. Buy For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War by Melvyn P. Leffler (ISBN: ) from Amazon’s Book Store.
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Leffler MacmillanSep 18, – History – pages 1 Review https: My library Help Advanced Book Search. This is perfect for anyone looking to broaden his or her lefcler on the politics of the Cold War. Write a customer review. What caused the cold war in the first place, and why did it last as long as it did? This is largely told through the series of American presidents on one side and Soviet leaders on the author through summitry and other communications and interaction.
He lives in Charlottesville. Alex Green rated it it was ok Mar 13, Ideology was at the heart of the Cold War.
But, through it all Leffler manages to capture the feelings of the individual leaders and how they viewed their rivals, themselves, and most importantly, their place and their nation’s place in history. Overall, a excellent and informative read with plenty of behind-the-scenes insights that help the reader understand not only what happened at the negotiating table, but why it happened the way it did.
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His description of Khrushchov in particular is very good, and in my view quite correctly re-establishes his intelligence, competence, and advanced insight into the problems of the USSR. Yes, yes, we all know what a dick Stalin was, but it was never so cookie cutter black-and-white as it is often portrayed. Origins of the Cold War 2ed: John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs.
Like Gaddis, this book focuses strictly on the relationship between the U. This is where we get to the who’s-a-bigger-dick bit. His is a story of two nations whose leaders, haunted by very different fears of a recurrent past, at crucial junctures perpetuated the conflict and cor it insoluble. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Soil and Returns see our soup rates and policies thinking of returning an item?
For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War
But that aside, there is the fact that Leffler talks a lot about the economies of the respective countries, but without ever describing these and their development in concrete details. Leffler, one of the West’s leading authorities on U.
He then illuminates how Reagan, Bush, and, above all, Gorbachev finally extricated themselves from the policies and mind-sets that had ,effler their predecessors, and were able to reconfigure Soviet-American relations after decades of confrontation. Great book for my foreign policy class, covers the Cold War extensively.
It seems that if one is writing about every other postwar president and leader anyway, one could as well add those too. Don’t have a Kindle? Sabota Ideology was at the heart of the Cold War. Not just the above-mentioned excessively biographical approach, but for example it does not actually cover all of the Cold War; Leffler describes it as covering five pivotal “episodes” in it, but in practice this means it is an all-out political history of US-Soviet relations during the Cold War, but with the odd aspect of relatively excluding Nixon and Ford.
This landmark study transcends many of our standard arguments about the Cold War to focus on what it was really about. The most interesting part of the book was the part about Eisenhower and Dulles his secretary of state. Learn more about Amazon Prime. Leffler homes in on four crucial episodes when American and Soviet leaders considered modulating, avoiding, or ending hostilities and asks why they failed: Brian Borden rated it really liked it Jul 31, There was a lot of mutual misunderstanding and over-blown fear-mongering, especially in the US.
The portraits of Cold War leaders, both Soviet and American, are convincingly and elegantly drawn. That the US misunderstood the situation in the USSR as often as the USSR did in the US is clear from this work, as is the fact that both sides were equally willing to be aggressor and interventionist when they felt threatened.
Buy the selected items together This item: Nicholas Thompson rated it liked it Jul 20, Pages with related products.
For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War by Melvyn P. Leffler
His analytical perspective, emphasizing both structure and agency, is illuminating throughout. There’s a problem loading this menu at the moment. Showing of 3 reviews.
Mar 22, Barry added it. Minor conflicts in minor countries became proxy battles between two superpowers trying to staunch the proliferation of rival principles and beliefs.
tne The author is very evenhanded in his judgment of the major players during the era. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Although the book mainly focuses on Presidents and the Kremlin the leaders of soviet Russiait also has some commentary on Winston Churchill and some Secretary of States.
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The American Century and Beyond: Either way, it’s still an interesting read. Oct 14, Caleb rated it tne liked it. See all free Kindle reading apps.