During the mid‐1990s libraries witnessed a proliferation of reference works written by scholars and historians regarding the Cold War. These encyclopedias and reference sources often included biographies, chronologies, and short articles describing the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War Reference Guide was first published in 1997, along with a series of other comparable reference works – for example, Encyclopedia of the Cold War (Arms, 1994) and The Cold War Encyclopedia (Parrish, 1996). In the preface Schwartz acknowledges that he experienced the Cold War as a liberal and discloses that he is not “trying to promote any particular interpretation of the Cold War”. Schwartz writes in a clear manner with careful attention given to summaries of noteworthy developments during the conflict while carefully balancing both conservative and liberal viewpoints.
This reference guide is organized into four sections with the following arrangement:
Section 1: General History of the Cold War (seven chapters);
Section II: Highlights of the Cold War (seven chapters);
Section III: Chronologies; and
Section IV: Prominent Cold War Figures.
Schwartz begins the first chapter with a brief overview of the Cold War and completes the first section with the following chapters: Pre‐Cold War (1945‐47); Containment (1947‐1954); Massive Retaliation Second Strike, Flexible Response (1954‐69); Mutually Assured Destruction and Détente (1969‐79); Winnable Nuclear War, the Evil Empire, and the Collapse of Communism (1980‐90); and the After‐math of the Cold War. The second section highlights significant events during the Cold War, e.g. Korean War, Vietnam War and McCarthyism and the Red Scare.
Readers who want to quickly identify superpower leaders from the 1940s to the early 1990s should consult A Chronology of Superpower and Allied Leadership, one of five useful chronologies included in this work. Schwartz includes over 60 biographical sketches of important figures such as Ludwig Erhard, Mikhail Gorbachev, Joseph Stalin, and Harry Truman. If readers are interested in identifying additional sources regarding the Cold War, Schwartz includes a well‐organized bibliography of journal articles, government documents, autobiographies and scholarly books. An updated bibliography for this paperback version that included new scholarship and interpretations about the conflict since the 1990s would have benefited researchers. Readers should note that the author focuses primarily on the United States and the Soviet Union. Libraries should be aware that this is a reprint and contains no new information, so unless you need to replace your previous copy you should consider other titles for your collection.
