Cold War: For 45 Years the World Held Its Breath - Hardcover

Isaacs, Jeremy; Downing, Taylor

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 059304309X ISBN 13: 9780593043097

Publisher: Bantam Press, 1998

Synopsis

An overall narrative for the period 1945 to 1990, telling in words and pictures what it was like to live through the momentous events that affected us all.

About this title

Review

Beautifully designed and illustrated with hundreds of photographs, this companion volume to the CNN documentary series begins with the roots of the Cold War: the military intervention by six nations (including the United States) in the Bolsheviks' 1917 Russian Revolution. The book then takes on the Cold War proper, from the post-World War II rise of the Iron Curtain to the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet government in the early 1990s. "For forty-five years," the authors write, "the peoples of the world held their breath," through missile crises, policies of "mutual assured destruction," the Vietnam War, and the uneasy steps toward détente and full peace highlighted by Richard Nixon's meetings with Leonid Brezhnev and by Mikhail Gorbachev's meetings with Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Special sections highlight the role of spies in the Cold War, as well as the films and literature of the era. This is a copiously detailed account of the major historical force of the latter half of the 20th century that would make an excellent reference book for any household.

About the Author

Jeremy Isaacs
Jeremy Isaacs was educated at Glasgow Academy and Merton College, Oxford, where he read Classics, was Chairman of the Labour Club, and was elected President of the Oxford Union Society. His education continued in the Highland Light Infantry and the Royal Scots Fusiliers. In 1958 he joined Granada Television. He was Director of Programmes, Thames Television (1974-9) and Founding Chief Executive of Channel Four (1981-7). In 1988 he became General Director of the Royal Opera House, a position he held for nine years. He was made Knight Bachelor in 1996.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 059304309X
• ISBN 13: 9780593043097
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 439