The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction

Summary

My professor selected this one as the course textbook for my Cold War history class this term and I absolutely love him for it. It only cost $10 at the university bookstore and had less than two hundred pages. I finished reading it on Saturday.

This book deals with the period of history between 1945 and 1991 known as the Cold War.

What i liked

This book was very short and mostly well written. It gave a good survey of the Cold War so that I could understand the big picture of the war. It didn't go into huge detail about individual events. For example, the Korean War, which was a very important conflict during the Cold War only got about a page and a half of coverage, even though it lasted a few years. I liked how short it was.

I also liked how it described the individual leaders, like Kennedy, Reagan, Kruschev, Stalin, etc. and how they influenced the war. My favourite Cold War leaders are: Roosevelt, Kruschev, Adenaur, Brandt, and Gorbachev.

What i didn't like


It was sometimes difficult to read and required plenty of concentration.

Conclusion

All in all a very good book. Definitely worth reading if you're interested in this period of history.