Overview

"Historians have long understood that the notion of ""the cold war"" is richly metaphorical, if not paradoxical. The conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union was a war that fell ambiguously short of war, an armed truce that produced considerable bloodshed. Yet scholars in the rapidly expanding field of Cold War studies have seldom paused to consider the conceptual and chronological foundations of the idea of the Cold War itself. In Uncertain Empire, a group of leading scholars takes up the challenge of making sense of the idea of the Cold War and its application to the writing of American history. They interrogate the concept from a wide range of disciplinary vantage points--diplomatic history, the history of science, literary criticism, cultural history, and the history of religion--highlighting the diversity of methods and approaches in contemporary Cold War studies. Animating the volume as a whole is a question about the extent to which the Cold War was an American invention. Uncertain Empire brings debates over national, global, and transnational history into focus and offers students of the Cold War a new framework for considering recent developments in the field."

Full Product Details

Author:   Joel Isaac (Lecturer in History, Lecturer in History, University of Cambridge) ,  Duncan Bell (Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Studies, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 23.10cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 15.50cm
Weight:   0.408kg
ISBN:  

9780199826148

ISBN 10:   0199826145
Pages:   314
Publication Date:   06 September 2012
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

"Introduction, Joel Isaac and Duncan Bell Part I: Prisms 1. Cold War Degree Zero, Anders Stephanson 2. Exploring the Histories of the Cold War: A Pluralist Approach, Odd Arne Westad 3. A History Best Served Cold, Philip Mirowski 4. Inventing Other Realities: What the Cold War Means for Literary Studies, Steven Belletto Part II: Vistas 5. The Geopolitical Vision: The Myth of an Outmatched U.S.A., John Thompson 6. War Envy and Amnesia: American Cold War Rewrites of Russia's War, Ann Douglas 7. The Spirit of Democracy: Religious Liberty and American Anti-Communism during the Cold War, Andrew Preston 8. God, the Bomb, and the Cold War: The Religious and Ethical Debate Over Nuclear Weapons, 1945-1960, Paul S. Boyer 9. Blues Under Siege: Ralph Ellison, Albert Murray, and the Idea of America, Daniel Matlin 10. Cold War Culture and the Lingering Myth of Sacco and Vanzetti, Moshik Temkin 11. Deconstructing ""Cold War Anthropology"", Peter Mandler 12. Cognitive and Perceptual Training in the Cold War Man-Machine System, Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi Index"

Reviews

<br> Uncertain Empire is that rarity: a collection of essays that works as seamlessly and to as great effect as a single-authored work. From its comprehensive introduction through the incisive analyses by some of the most interesting historians of the Cold War, Isaac and Bell have assembled a rich and multi-faceted exploration of their subject. In their hands, the Cold War becomes a lens through which to examine American history itself. --Marilyn Young, New York University <br><p><br>

Uncertain Empire is that rarity: a collection of essays that works as seamlessly and to as great effect as a single-authored work. From its comprehensive introduction through the incisive analyses by some of the most interesting historians of the Cold War, Isaac and Bell have assembled a rich and multi-faceted exploration of their subject. In their hands, the Cold War becomes a lens through which to examine American history itself. --Marilyn Young, New York University These are stimulating think pieces from a multidisciplinary perspective. --CHOICE Thought-provoking . An impressively wide-ranging and exceptionally coherent collection that simultaneously clarifies, problematizes, and advances our understanding of the United States and the Cold War. --Hugh Wilford, Journal of American History

Author Information

Joel Isaac is Lecturer in the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Christ's College, and the author of Working Knowledge: Making the Human Sciences from Parsons to Kuhn. Duncan Bell is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Christ's College, and the author of The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860-1900.

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