Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 5-2024
Abstract
This article analyzes Cold War historiography, addressing how interpretations have evolved regarding the historical question of whether the Soviet Union or the United States was more responsible for the breakdown in Soviet-American relations after World War II. In the years immediately after World War II, the dominant interpretation in the U.S. was that the Cold War was a result of Soviet aggression. But by the late 1950s, a revisionist school began to develop, and it blamed the Cold War on America's desire for capitalist expansion. Eventually, a post-revisionist school emerged. Post-revisionism sought a more complex picture, and refrained from blaming any particular side. Following the end of the Cold War, newer books and articles have spoken to this issue, forming New Cold War Historiography and the various schools of thought that continue Cold War research, debate, and investigation up until today.
Comments
This article was originally published in the Spring 2024 edition of CLIO, a publication of the Brooklyn College Historical Society.