HIST 615/635: HISTORY OF THE COLD WAR
Instructor: Dr. Steven E. Harris
George Mason University; Summer Term B, 2006
This class meets Tu./Thurs., 7:20pm-10:00pm, Robinson Hall B442
Office: Pohick Module 25, tel. (703)-993-4526; e-mail: sharris7@gmu.edu
Office Hours: 3-4pm, Mondays; 6-7pm Tuesdays; and by appointment
Course Description
Before there was a “war on terror,” there was the Cold War, a four decades-long
conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. This course examines the Cold
War and its historiography. While the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991, the ways in which it was fought continue to shape the world today. The
threat of nuclear holocaust was at the center of this conflict between the superpowers,
forcing them and their allies to engage in this struggle on many different levels. One of
our central goals in this course will be to examine why and how war – traditionally
understood as a military conflict between nation-states – permeated so many aspects of
political, social, economic, and cultural life during this conflict from 1945 to 1991 in both
the capitalist West and the socialist East. We will also study the geo-political outcomes
and institutions of the Cold War – such as the break-up of the Soviet Union and NATO –
as well as the practices and mentalities engendered by the conflict – such as domestic
surveillance and McCarthyism, aspects of which survived beyond 1991. We will
consider how scholars have treated such topics as the origins of the Cold War and its
ultimate end, as well as its development in major regions of the world such as Eastern
Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. We will also examine the different
methodological approaches scholars have developed in studying the Cold War.
Traditionally, historians have focused upon diplomatic, military, and political history to
understand the Cold War, while other scholars more recently have employed the tools of
social and cultural history. Our purpose is to evaluate these different approaches
critically, trace how questions about the Cold War have changed over time, and develop
some of our own questions.
Course Assignments and Requirements:
* Your grade in this course will be based on the following criteria and assignments:
1) Participation in class discussion.
2) Two extended book reviews (4-5 pages) based upon books from the required reading
list. You will choose the two books to review on the first day of class. Please turn in
your book reviews on the days we discuss those books.
3) One class presentation: 5-10 minute presentation of one of the books you have chosen
to write a book review on. You will choose your book for this assignment also on the
first day of class. Please distribute your book review to the class via Web CT at least two
days before class.
4) In addition to your book reviews, you must post 4 brief responses (1-2 pages) to books
on the required reading list to Web CT. These postings must be on books other than the
two you choose for your book reviews. Two of these postings must be done before June
29, and two after June 29. Please post your responses at least 24 hours before class.
5) Primary source analysis and 5-10 minute presentation: 4-5 page report on a primary
source collection or type of primary source related to the history of the Cold War. Please
consult with me during the first two weeks of the course about this assignment. Please
distribute your report to the class via Web CT at least two days before your presentation.
6) Final paper: 10-15 page historiographical review. Your task is to examine how
historians have addressed a question or topic in Cold War history, critique these works,
and suggest future lines of research. You should draw upon as many books from the
required reading list as possible, as well as relevant works outside of the reading list.
Please consult with me during the first two weeks of class on the topic you wish to
choose. The deadline for this assignment is the last day of class, July 25.
Grading Criteria:
Class participation and response postings to Web CT:
Class presentations:
Two book reviews and primary source analysis:
Final paper:
15%
20%
25%
40%
Legitimate Excuses for Missing Class and Turning Work in Late:
Legitimate excuses include family emergencies, medical appointments, being ill,
and religious holidays. All excuses must be supported with documentary proof, such as a
note from a doctor, with the contact information of the person writing the excuse. In the
event of a family emergency, a phone call to me from a parent or next of kin will suffice.
Communication:
Please use e-mail to communicate with me about minor questions and
administrative questions. If you wish to discuss readings and topics of the course,
specific questions about your writing assignments, your grades, etc., please avoid e-mail
for these questions; instead, stop by during office hours or make an appointment to see
me. See this map for the location of Pohick Module:
http://coyote.gmu.edu/map/maphtml/pm1.html.
Honor Code:
The Honor Code of George Mason University will be strictly enforced. It reads,
“Student members of the George Mason University community pledge not to cheat,
plagiarize, steal, or lie in matters related to academic work.” You can read the code and
its related provisions at http://www.gmu.edu/departments/unilife/honorcode.html. If you
have any questions about the code and its enforcement, please do not hesitate to ask me.
In writing your papers, be sure to avoid plagiarism. If you take someone else’s
ideas or words and present them in a paper as your own (i.e., without proper
acknowledgement of the author), you will have committed plagiarism. If you are unsure
about what this means, please do not hesitate to ask me for further clarification. Please
also see the English Department’s statement on plagiarism at
http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/plagiarism.htm.
Americans with Disabilities Act:
Please note the official policy of the GMU Disability Resource Center: “If you are
a student with a disability and you need academic accommodations, please see me [Prof.
Steven Harris] and contact the Disability Resource Center (DRC) at 993-2474. All
academic accommodations must be arranged through the DRC.”
Drop/Add:
Last day to add this class: June 14.
Last day to drop this class: June 14.
Additional Class Policies:
* All cell phones must be turned completely off during class.
* Use of laptop computers, recording machines, and other electronic equipment is not
allowed in this class.
* Arrive to class on time. You must attend the entire class time in order to receive credit
for participation for that day.
Course Readings:
The required books that we will discuss in this course are indicated on the course
schedule below. They are available for purchase at the GMU bookstore.
Course Schedule:
June 6: Introduction: Thinking Historically about the Cold War
Required reading:
John Lewis Gaddis, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1997).
Suggested reading:
S. J. Ball, The Cold War: An International History, 1947-1991 (New York: Arnold,
1998).
David S. Painter, The Cold War: An International History (London: Routledge, 1999).
June 8: How Did It Start? Who Was to Blame?
Required reading:
Melvyn P. Leffler and David S. Painter, eds., Origins of the Cold War: An International
History (New York: Routledge, 2005).
Suggested reading:
Michael Hogan, A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National
Security State, 1945-1955 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Ralph B. Levering et al., Debating the Origins of the Cold War: American and Russian
Perspectives (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2001).
June 13: The Soviet Union and Its Empire
Required reading:
Raymond Pearson, The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire (New York: Palgrave, 2002).
Suggested reading:
Vladislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War: From Stalin
to Khrushchev (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996).
Matthew J. Ouimet, The Rise and Fall of the Brezhnev Doctrine in Soviet Foreign Policy
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003).
June 15: Ground Zero: Berlin and Germany
Required reading:
Uta G. Poiger, Jazz, Rock, and Rebels: Cold War Politics and American Culture in a
Divided Germany (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000).
Suggested reading:
Marc Trachtenberg, A Constructed Peace: The Making of the European Settlement, 19451963 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999).
David F. Crew, ed., Consuming Germany and the Cold War (Oxford and New York:
Berg, 2003).
June 20: Representing the Cold War: Literature, Film, and Mass Media
Required reading:
Rana Mitter, Patrick Major, eds., Across the Blocs: Cold War Cultural and Social History
(London; Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2004).
Suggested reading:
Margot A. Henriksen, Dr. Strangelove’s America: Society and Culture in the Atomic Age
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
Keith M. Booker, Monsters, Mushroom Clouds, and the Cold War: American Science
Fiction and the Roots of Postmodernism, 1946-1964 (Westport, CT: Greenwood
Press, 2001).
June 22: Nuclear Weapons: Science and Mass Death in the 20th Century
Required reading:
Paul S. Boyer, By the Bomb’s Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of
the Atomic Age (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994).
Suggested reading:
Thomas Borstelmann, Apartheid’s Reluctant Uncle: The United States and Southern
Africa in the Early Cold War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
David Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994).
June 27: On the Brink of Nuclear War: The Cuban Missile Crisis
Required reading:
Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali, One Hell of a Gamble: Khrushchev, Castro,
and Kennedy, 1958-1964 (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company,
1997).
Suggested reading:
Richard Ned Lebow and Janice Gross Stein, We All Lost the Cold War (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1994).
Alice L. George, Awaiting Armageddon: How Americans Faced the Cuban Missile Crisis
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003).
June 29: Cold War on the Periphery: Client States and Proxy Wars
Required reading:
Piero Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002).
Suggested reading:
Yezid Sayigh and Avi Shlaim, eds., The Cold War and the Middle East (Oxford:
Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).
Henry S. Bradsher, Afghan Communism and Soviet Intervention (Oxford and New York:
Oxford University Press, 1999).
July 4: NO CLASS
July 6: Social Democracy, Human Rights and Other Casualties of the Cold War
Required reading:
Greg Grandin, The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2004).
Suggested reading:
David K. Johnson, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians
in the Federal Government (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004).
Howard J. De Nike, John Quigley, and Kenneth J. Robinson, eds., Genocide in
Cambodia: Documents from the Trial of Pol Pot and Ieng Sary (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000).
July 11: The Cold War in Asia
Required reading:
Christina Klein, Cold War Orientalism: Asia in the Middlebrow Imagination, 1945-1961
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).
Suggested reading:
Bruce Cumings, North Korea: Another Country (New York and London: The New Press,
2004).
William Stuek, The Korean War: An International History (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1997).
Ilya V. Gaiduk, Confronting Vietnam: Soviet Policy Toward the Indochina Conflict,
1954-1963 (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 2003).
_____. The Soviet Union and the Vietnam War (Chicago: I. R. Dee, 1996).
July 13: Popular Culture and Mass Consumption
Required reading:
Stephen J. Whitfield, The Culture of the Cold War (Baltimore and London: The Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1996).
Suggested reading:
Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (New
York: Basic Books, 1988).
Timothy W. Ryback, Rock around the Bloc: A History of Rock Music in Eastern Europe
and the Soviet Union (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).
July 18: The Other Unconventional Weapons: Literature, Art, and Propaganda
Required reading:
Frances Stonor Saunders, The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and
Letters (New York: New Press: Distributed by W.W. Norton & Co., 2000).
Suggested reading:
Michael L. Krenn, Fall-Out Shelters for the Human Spirit: American Art and the Cold
War (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2005).
Scott Lucas, Freedom’s War: The US Crusade against the Soviet Union, 1945-56
(Machester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1999).
David Caute, The Dancer Defects: The Struggle for Cultural Supremacy during the Cold
War (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
July 20: James Bond and the Masculine Mystique
Required reading:
James Chapman, Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films (New
York: Columbia University Press, 2000).
Suggested reading:
Christoph Lindner, The James Bond Phenomenon: A Critical Reader (Manchester, UK:
Manchester University Press, 2003).
Jeremy Black, The Politics of James Bond: From Fleming’s Novel to the Big Screen
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005).
July 25: Détente and the End of the Cold War
Required reading:
Jeremi Suri, Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Détente (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 2003).
Suggested reading:
Daniel C. Thomas, The Helsinki Effect: International Norms, Human Rights, and the
Demise of Communism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001).
Gale Stokes, The Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern
Europe (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993).
Emma Gilligan, Defending Human Rights in Russia: Sergei Kovalyov, Dissident and
Human Rights Commissioner, 1969-2003 (New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004).
Stephen Kotkin, Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000 (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2001).