The End of the Cold War, 1981-1991
HIST 375
Fall 2014 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
REES 375 |
| Certificates: International Relations |
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the relative stability that prevailed between the United States and Soviet Union since the end of the Cuban missile crisis (and more fundamentally, since the East and West German governments were formed in 1949) broke down. By mid-1982, well-informed figures in both Washington and Moscow feared nuclear war. Hostility between the two governments only intensified over the succeeding months. Yet by mid-1988, the Cold War ended and a new mode of cooperation between the Soviet and U.S. leaders emerged. How and why did this profound transformation occur? This seminar will concentrate on this question. It will call into question both the liberal and the conservative explanations for these developments that have reigned in the United States over the past two decades.
Students will read secondary works, memoirs of negotiators, and primary documents from both sides. In the concluding weeks, each student will do a research essay. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS HIST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (HIST-MN)(HIST) |
Major Readings:
John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy during the Cold War (rev. ed., 2005)
Jack F. Matlock, Jr., Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended (2004)
Pavel Palazchenko, My Years with Gorbachev and Shevardnadze: The Memoir of a Soviet Interpreter (1997)
Vladislav M. Zubov, (A Failed Empire) The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev (2009)
Anatoly S. Chernyaev, My Six Years with Gorbachev (2000)
Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
Stephen Kotkin, Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000, 2nd ed. (2008)
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Examinations and Assignments:
Weekly responses (1-2pp.) to the readings and an 8-12pp. essay at the end. |
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