Revisionism in Retrospect: A Personal View

Slavic Review ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 682-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila Fitzpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Personal View ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
First And Second Generation

This is a participant's account of the movement in Soviet history during the 1970s and 1980s known as “revisionism,” which Sheila Fitzpatrick understands as an iconoclastic challenge by social historians to the dominance in Sovietology of political scientists and the totalitarian model. Particular attention is paid to the debates on the nature of Stalinism, which in the context of the Cold War became highly politicized and bitterly polemical, as well as to internal arguments: for example, between Marxists and non-Marxists and between first- and second-generation revisionists. Revisionists’ early interest in questions of social support and later focus on resistance is discussed. The essay offers an assessment of the intellectual and historiographical contribution of revisionism, including an appreciation of contingency, a new approach to power and the interplay of government and society, new standards of historical professionalism, and an emphasis on archives and primary sources. Finally, a line of continuity between revisionism and its 1990s challenger, “post-revisionism,” is suggested. Comments are provided by Robert V Daniels, J. Arch Getty, Elena A. Osokina, and Jochen Hellbeck.

Daily Life of the American Embassy in Czechoslovakia in 1945—1948

Istoriya ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6 (104)) ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Valery Yungblyud
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Economic Recovery ◽  
The Us ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Leadership Interactions

The article is devoted to the study of various aspects of daily life of the US Embassy in Czechoslovakia in 1945—1948. The author considers the main areas of its work, major problems and difficulties that American diplomats had to overcome being in difficult conditions of the post-war economic recovery and international tension growth. Special attention is paid to the role of Ambassador L. A. Steinhardt, his methods of leadership, interactions with subordinates, with the Czechoslovak authorities and the State Department. This allows to reveal some new aspects of American diplomacy functioning, as well as to identify poorly explored factors that influenced American politics in Central Europe during the years when the Cold War was brewing and tensions between Moscow and Washington were rising. The article is based on unpublished primary sources from the American archives.

The Start of the Cold War in Bulgaria: A Personal View

1979 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril E. Black
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Second World War ◽  
First Year ◽  
World War ◽  
Personal View ◽  
Direct Experience ◽  
Department Of State ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Second World

My direct experience with the Bulgarian aspect of the interallied rivalries following the Second World War extended from the planning of postwar policy in the Department of State in 1943–44 through the first year (1944–45) of American participation in the implementation of the Bulgarian armistice.

Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy: A New Approach

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Coppedge ◽  
John Gerring ◽  
David Altman ◽  
Michael Bernhard ◽  
Steven Fish ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Measuring Democracy ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Traditional Approaches

In the wake of the Cold War, democracy has gained the status of a mantra. Yet there is no consensus about how to conceptualize and measure regimes such that meaningful comparisons can be made through time and across countries. In this prescriptive article, we argue for a new approach to conceptualization and measurement. We first review some of the weaknesses among traditional approaches. We then lay out our approach, which may be characterized ashistorical,multidimensional,disaggregated,andtransparent.We end by reviewing some of the payoffs such an approach might bring to the study of democracy.

The Europeanization of Swedish Foreign Policy and Beyond

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Brommesson
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Role Theory ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Role Change ◽  
Role Conception ◽  
Role Conceptions ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Point Of Departure

This chapter analyzes the role conceptions of Swedish foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. The chapter’s point of departure is a theoretical framework based on role theory, including the scope conditions for role change and the possibility of the Europeanization of foreign policy roles. Based on a reading of previous studies of Swedish foreign policy and primary sources, the chapter first analyzes how Swedish foreign policy role conception was Europeanized during the 1990s and early 2000s. Secondly, it examines how this Europeanized role was subsequently complemented by a reemerging Nordic one. The conclusion of the chapter is that Sweden’s foreign policy role conception today is characterized by multiple roles.

Progress in fullerene chemistry: Exohedral functionalization of first and second generation and a new approach to aza-heterofullerenes

1997 ◽  
Vol 58 (11) ◽  
pp. 1929-1937 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jochen Mattay ◽  
Gregorio Torres-Garcia ◽  
Johannes Averdung ◽  
Christian Wolff ◽  
Ingo Schlachter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Generation ◽  
New Approach ◽  
First And Second Generation

Yes, Minister: Reassessing South Africa's Intervention in the Angolan Civil War, 1975–1976

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Miller
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Civil War ◽  
South African ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Threat Perception ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
History Of ◽  
African Context ◽  
Apartheid Regime ◽  
The Cold War

In 1975–1976, South Africa's apartheid regime took the momentous step of intervening in the Angolan civil war to counter the Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola and its backers in Havana and Moscow. The failure of this intervention and the subsequent ignominious withdrawal had major repercussions for the evolution of the regime and the history of the Cold War in southern Africa. This article is the first comprehensive study of how and why Pretoria became involved. Drawing on a wide variety of primary sources from South African archives as well as interviews with key protagonists, the article shows that the South African Defence Force and Defence Minister P. W. Botha pushed vigorously and successfully for deeper engagement to cope with security threats perceived through the prism of the emerging doctrine of “total onslaught.” South Africa's intervention in Angola was first and foremost the product of strategic calculations derived from a sense of threat perception expressed and experienced in Cold War terms, but applied and developed in a localized southern African context.

scholarly journals Intervision

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Yulia Yurtaeva
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Administrative Data ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Cultural Communication ◽  
Basic Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western View ◽  
The Cold War

The research on the “Intervision”, used as an empiric case study about the inter-cultural communication between its participants, consists of examining primary sources spread over several archives throughout Europe to collect structural and administrative data, making interviews with contemporary witnesses and evaluating statistics – with mainly the task to widen the perspective on a subject, that was formerly nation-focused or being described with a Western view only. As the preliminary steps of a basic study on the History of the Program Exchange in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, this research became an example, with which challenges one is confronted within an Media Archaeological task.

scholarly journals The origins of the Cold War: Deciphering open access primary sources

2018 ◽  
Vol 79 (11) ◽  
pp. 621
Author(s):  
Amy Dye-Reeves
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Social System ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Marshall Plan ◽  
Digital Archives ◽  
Yale University ◽  
International History ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

Avalon Project (Yale University)- Cold WarCold War International History ProjectCold War MuseumHarvard Project on the Soviet Social System OnlineNational Security ArchiveOrigins of the Cold WarPrelude to McCarthyism: The Making of a BlacklistThe Wilson Center Digital Archives- Cold War OriginsCold War IntelligenceCold War Politics (1945–1991)Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy: The Cold WarForeign Relations of the United StatesIdeological Foundations of the Cold War–Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and MuseumNational Security Achieve–Debriefing BooksAddress to Congress on the Yalta Conference (Franklin D. Roosevelt)Crimea (Yalta) Conference, 1945Berlin Airlift (Harry S. Truman Presidential Library)Berlin Blockade 1948-1949Berlin Blockade (June 24, 1948–May 12, 1949)The March Crisis and the Berlin AirliftGeorge C. Marshall (The Marshall Plan)Marshall Plan ExhibitPublicizing the Marshall Plan: Records of the U.S. Special Representative in Europe, 1948-1950Truman and the Marshall Plan

Words Are Not Enough

2020 ◽  
pp. 62-111
Author(s):  
Vanessa Walker
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Early Development ◽  
Latin American ◽  
First Year ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Human Rights Advocacy ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter analyzes the early development of the Carter administration's human rights agenda, built in tandem with a new approach to U.S.–Latin American relations during its first year in office. From the outset, the Carter administration envisioned a human rights policy that would simultaneously mitigate human rights violations abroad, build U.S. credibility and stature in the international sphere by reasserting a moral and ideological pole of attraction, and signify a move away from the excessive secrecy and power of the Cold War presidency at home. Although Carter largely shared the premises of the Movement's vision, differences over the implementation and signifiers of this policy in high-level diplomacy created rifts between like-minded advocates and policy makers. Carter found himself grappling with the legacies of both U.S. intervention in the region and also congressional and public distrust stemming from past excesses of the Cold War presidency. The administration's options in implementing its policy were bounded by both past regional relations and human rights advocacy itself.

The fashion gap: the Cold War politics of American and Soviet fashion, 1945-1959

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie M. Amerian
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Diplomacy ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Struggle ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Key Participants

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role that fashion played in the Cold War competition between the USA and the Soviet Union during the period from 1945 to 1959. Design/methodology/approach – This paper begins by situating fashion within the larger American efforts of cultural diplomacy. It then examines the American and Soviet approaches to fashion. Finally, it focuses on the fashion show at the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow. This paper utilizes primary sources, including archival sources and period newspapers and magazines. Findings – Both American and Soviet leaders tried to use fashion to embody the ideological values of each political and economic system. Both also acknowledged a “fashion gap”, whereby Americans enjoyed clear superiority thanks to a well-developed mass production system of ready-made, stylish clothing, that some termed the American Look. Americans hoped the fashion gap would demonstrate that only capitalism could provide women with an abundance of the necessary – but also desirable – consumer goods that enhanced their feminine beauty. Thus, fashion played an important part in the Cold War cultural struggle, in which American and Soviet women were key participants. Originality/value – Much has been written about the Cold War cultural diplomacy, especially the Moscow exhibition, but fashion is often left out of the analyses. Meanwhile, both the American Look and Soviet efforts to create socialist fashion have been examined, but no work has been done to look at the two together to understand fashion’s larger implications for the Cold War.

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