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  • The Cold War

  • A World History
  • Written by: Odd Arne Westad
  • Narrated by: Julian Elfer
  • Length: 22 hrs and 44 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (33 ratings)

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The Cold War

Written by: Odd Arne Westad
Narrated by: Julian Elfer
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Publisher's Summary

In The Cold War, Odd Arne Westad offers a new perspective on a century when a superpower rivalry and an ideological war transformed every corner of our globe. We traditionally think of the Cold War as a post-World War II diplomatic and military conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. But in this major new work, Westad argues that the conflict must be understood as a global ideological confrontation with roots in the industrial revolution and with continuing implications for the world today. The Cold War may have begun on the perimeters of Europe, but it had its largest impacts in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Expanding our understanding of the Cold War both geographically and chronologically, Westad offers the definitive new history of an ongoing battle.

©2017 Odd Arne Westad (P)2017 HighBridge, a Division of Recorded Books

What listeners say about The Cold War

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Comprehensive Cold War study

Really enjoyed this comprehensive narrative on the Cold War, highly recommend! Narrator does an excellent job.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Phenomenal book

I learned so much from this book! Really appreciate the time and effort that it must have taken to write something like this. Really outstanding work.

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very enjoyable.

This book was an engaging history lesson. It is not over filled with boring details and timelines, but follows a narrative approach finishing ideas and plot lines as needed, sometimes going back in history to pick up on loose ends. At no point did I think this book too long or dry. Highly recommended.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Oh, boy ...

The Cold War: A World History is a survey of the Cold War as it was experienced globally and evolved over time. I expect it was the author's intention to give the listener a reasonably complete framework for more detailed study. I hate to hit this book hard as it was so comprehensive, but it stumbled in many ways. I believe the major problem was in the editing which failed to identify where the quality of story-line was lifting off the tracks and becoming a bit of an academic ramble.

Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of good information in this work. There are areas of the book that flow really well and give a good, solid background to the topic. This was true for the last few chapters; however, this is much less so for the earlier chapters.

A couple points:
1) The narrator clips along too quickly. Nice voice, nice tone, nice structure ... too fast!
2) The author meanders around in space and time leaving most of the chapters quite difficult to follow. This means you may have trouble digesting the facts and arguments presented. Re-listening to a section helps, but it does not cure the problem as the story tends to be too fragmented.
3) Points 1 and 2 above, when combined, can leave you face down in your spaghetti and meatballs. I am not joking; I have experienced some deep and involuntary power-naps trying to finish this book.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Deep but disjointed

There is a ton of great information in this book, but it lacks overall organisation. The Chapters jump from one topic to another with little or no direction. Overall it is still worth the listen but I think that a better means of organising the information and threads would make it much more compelling.

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Erudite Tour de Force

Wonderful mixture of factual information and speculation on global trends and forces peppered with insightful quotations to add colour to the mélange.

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