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History 261a/Political Science 176a
Professor John Gaddis
MW 1-2:15 PM Yale Art Gallery
With the conclusion of the Cold War, it has become possible for the first time to teach that subject from beginning to end, and to incorporate the viewpoints of all its major participants. This course will draw upon recently-released Soviet, East European, and Chinese documentary and video sources, as well as those already available from the United States and its Western European allies, to provide a comprehensive synthesis. It will introduce major interpretive issues emerging from these new materials.
Required readings (available in paperback for purchase at Bookhaven; also on 24 hour reserve at CCL):
Richard Crockatt, The Fifty Years War or Ronald Powaski, The Cold War.
Anatoly Dobrynin, In Confidence: Moscow’s Ambassador to America’s Six Cold War Presidents.
John Lewis Gaddis, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History.
Li Zhisui, The Private Life of Chairman Mao
Timothy Naftali and Aleksandr Fursenko, “One Hell of a Gamble”: Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, 1958-1964.
Don Oberdorfer, From the Cold War to a New Era: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1983-1991.
Stephen J. Whitfield, The Culture of the Cold War.
Grades will be based on a mid-term examination (30%), a 5-10 page take home essay (25%), oral participation in discussion sections (10%), and a final examination (35%).
Credits: This course counts toward meeting the History Department’s “European” history requirement. Students wishing to use it to fulfill the “American” or “non-Western” requirement may do so, with the permission of the instructor, by writing the take-home essay on a subject within those fields and submitting it for review, after the semester has ended, by the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Office hours: HGS 243, MW 2:30-3:30, T 3:30-4:00, or by appointment. Office phones: 432-1374 or 432-9371. E-mail: john.gaddis@yale.edu.
Lecture/Discussion Schedule:
September 2: The Cold War: Memory, Sources, and Representation.
September 7-9: The Origins of the Cold War in Europe.
September 14-16: The Origins of the Cold War in Asia.
Discussion: Who Started the Cold War?
September 21-23: The Nuclear Arms Race, 1945-55.
Reading assignment: Crockatt, pp. 1-200 or
Powaski, pp. 1-166.
Discussion: The Bomb.
September 28-30: Decolonization, Destalinization, and the Origins of the Sino-Soviet Split.
Reading assignment: Li, pp. 1-429.
Discussion: Coalitions.
October 5-7: The Space Race, the Missile Gap, the Berlin and Cuban Missile Crises, 1957-62.
Reading assignment: Naftali-Fursenko, all;
Dobrynin, pp. 1-114.
Discussion: Close Calls.
October 12: Review
Reading assignment: Gaddis, all.
October 14: Mid-term exam.
October 19: Fall Break -- no class.
October 21-26: Cold War Cultures.
Reading assignment: Whitfield, all.
Discussion: McCarthyism.
October 28-November 2: Vietnam, Czechoslovakia and China, 1965-68.
Reading assignment: Crockatt, pp. 203-52;
Dobrynin, pp. 115-90; Li, pp. 433-516.
Discussion: Credibility.
November 4-9: The Rise and Fall of Detente: 1969-79.
Reading assignment: Crockatt, pp. 253-98 or
Powaski, pp. 167-230; Dobrynin, pp. 191-433; Li, pp. 517-638.
Discussion: Détente.
November 11, 16, 18: Cold War II (1979-88)
Reading assignment: Crockatt, pp. 301-78 or
Powaski, pp. 231-307; Oberdorfer, pp. 1-326; Dobrynin, pp. 433-639;.
Discussion: Reagan and Gorbachev.
NB: Take home essays to be turned in at November 11-13 discussion
sections. No discussion sections during week of November 18-20.
November 20-29: Thanksgiving Break.
November 30-December 2: The End of the Cold War: 1989-91.
Reading assignment: Oberdorfer, pp. 327-481;
Gaddis, pp. 281-95.
Discussion:
How the Cold War Ended.
December 7: Review.