Odd Arne Westad

Written by not a US or UK national and it tells. It is far more balanced in its assessment of events. I would say it's ±70% ideal. Why 70? Because even in this tour de force equally diabolical acts of the US and the West still leave an impression of being less sinister and nefarious than those of the USSR :(

Во времена продолжающейся мировой напряженности, которую некоторые называют второй холодной войной, вышла новая попытка осмысления первой. Автор — норвежец, и это заметно — большинство работ его англосаксонских коллег нашему читателю можно изучать, только если он мазохист: героические силы западного Добра сопротивляются и, наконец, одолевают советское Зло по всему миру. Типичная история, написанная победителями, к примеру, бестселлер йельского профессора Дж. Л. Гэддиса The Cold War: A New History. Скандинаву такое манихейство не свойственно, и дьявольские козни американцев и их союзников он называет своими именами. Впрочем, к СССР он тоже относится без излишних симпатий, но этим книга и ценна — это наиболее объективный рассказ о главном противостоянии XX века. Отойдя от американоцентризма, Вестад смог лучше и глубже рассказать о третьем мире и социалистических странах — тут коллеги из США в основном проходят по верхам. А напрасно, ведь рассказ о том, как банановая корпорация United Fruit (ныне Chiquita) держала за горло всю Центральную Америку, может, не достаточно эпичен, но точно иллюстративен. Таких важных нюансов у Вестада приятно много.… (mais)

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.… (mais)

Good - not great, overview of post WWII world. Reads like a text book- Europe, Asia, Africa ... Good to read the European perspective, as the author clearly sees himself / europe in the middle between these two giant sometimes monsters. Sometimes one is especially bad, other times the other one is. One may say even handed, or.... Lionizes Gorbachev for example - a hero fighting the left, right, center, europe and the world to bring the world to the right place. Pleasant reading, but nothing new for me in this one...… (mais)