The Cold War: An International History

Though it ended twenty years ago, we still live in a world shaped by the Cold War. Beginning with its origins in the mid-1940s, this course will trace the evolution of the global struggle, until its culmination at the end of the 1980s. Students will be asked to ponder the fundamental nature of the Cold War, what kept it alive for nearly fifty years, how it ended, and its long term legacy for the world. As distinguished from the lecture taught in previous quarters, this class will closely investigate ten major Cold War battlegrounds over the quarter. Selected case studies will include: the division of Germany, Iran in the 1950s, Cuba, Vietnam, the Six Day War, the Chilean coup, sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, Central America, and the Eastern European revolutions of 1989. Students will be asked to consult a combination of original documents and recent histories.