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Abstract
Teaching and research on the Cold War in the United Kingdom developed in three phases. The first phase ran from the emergence of the Cold War in the 1940s up to the 1970s, a period which saw studies produced by the Royal Institute of International Affairs, various polemical works and some attention to the conflict in the memoirs of politicians and officials. These years witnessed some teaching by political scientists but no teaching and very little work by historians. By the 1970s, however, the rise of an interest in contemporary history and releases of documents under the new thirty year rule led to a major growth in courses and publications on the Cold War. This trend continued until the end of the conflict in 1988/1991. Since the demise of the Cold War there has been a continued interest in the topic but the range of approaches has widened from diplomacy and strategy to include propaganda and cultural policies, the impact on everyday life, and the roles of sport and religion. At the same time, new topics have gained prominence: from the Middle East to climate change, from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons to terrorism. Nevertheless, the field remains vibrant with a dedicated journal, a specialist centre at the LSE and an impending three-volume study from Cambridge University Press.
Notes
Michael F. Hopkins is a lecturer in the School of History at the University of Liverpool. His main research interests lie in American and British foreign policy and Anglo-American relations since 1945, with a particular focus on the Cold War; and in the institutions of diplomacy and diplomats. He is the author of Oliver Franks and the Truman Administration, 1948–1952 (2003) and (with Michael Dockrill) of The Cold War, 1945–1991 (2006); and editor (with Richard J. Aldrich) of Intelligence, Defence and Diplomacy (2003) and (with Gillian Staerck and Michael D. Kandiah) of Cold War Britain (2003).
[1] CitationLeffler and Westad, Cambridge History of the Cold War. Volume One: Origins, 1917–1962. Volume Two: Crises and Détente, 1962–1975. Volume Three: Endings, 1975–1991.
[2] See, for example, CitationMcNeill, America, Britain and Russia 1941–1946.
[3] See, for example, CitationFeis, The China; CitationFeis, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin; CitationHalle, Dream and Reality.
[4] Watt, Citation What About the People? , 4.
[5] CitationHill, ‘Introduction: Academic International Relations’, 5.
[6] CitationCarr, International Relations since the Peace Treaties; CitationCarr, The International Crisis.
[7] CitationWalter Lippmann published the collected articles in The Cold War.
[8] Each series had begun in the 1920s. The first volumes after 1945 were CitationRIIA, Survey of International Affairs, 1947–1948; Documents on International Affairs, Citation 1947 –1948; and Citation Defence in the Cold War .
[9] See, for example: CitationPollitt, The Crimea Conference; CitationClegg, American Spider; The Big Lie about Russia.
[10] CitationOxford Radical Association, Britain and the Cold War, 5, 6, 10, 11, 15.
[11] CitationStrang, Home and Abroad; CitationKelly, The Ruling Few; CitationKirkpatrick, The Inner Circle.
[12] CitationWoodhouse, British Foreign Policy since the Second World War.
[13] CitationKnapp, A History of War and Peace, 1939–1965, 97.
[14] CitationNicholas, Britain and the United States.
[15] CitationDonnelly, Struggle for the World; CitationHudson, The Hard and Bitter Peace; CitationLuard, The Cold War.
[16] The earliest revisionist writers were CitationWilliams, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy and CitationFleming, The Cold War and its Origins, 1917–1960. Soon there was a steady stream: two examples are CitationHorowitz, The Free World Colossus and CitationGardner, Architects of Illusion.
[17] In 1966 a new journal was founded – the Journal of Contemporary History. On these developments see CitationWatt, Contemporary History in Europe.
[18] Watt, Contemporary History in Europe, 56; CitationBarlow and Harrison, History at the Universities.
[19] CitationWatt, ‘Rethinking the Cold War’.
[20] See the State Department website for the full list of volumes, as well as online versions of all the volumes from the Kennedy administration (1961–1963) onwards at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus; a very good selection of volumes before 1961 is available online at http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/
[21] CitationAnderson, The United States, Great Britain and the Cold War; CitationHathaway, Ambiguous Partnership; CitationRyan, The Vision of Anglo-America.
[22] CitationYergin, The Shattered Peace.
[23] CitationBullock, Ernest Bevin.
[24] CitationDeighton, The Impossible Peace.
[25] The earliest studies included CitationDouglas, From War to Cold War; CitationRothwell, Britain and the Cold War; CitationBarker, The British between the Superpowers. Two edited collections captured the state of thinking just as the Cold War ended: CitationDockrill and Young, British Foreign Policy; CitationDeighton, Britain and the First Cold War.
[26] CitationKent and Young, ‘The “Western Union” Concept and British Defence Policy’.
[27] CitationWatt, Succeeding John Bull.
[28] DBPO Series I (Citation1945–1950), Vols. I–VIII.
[29] DBPO Series II (Citation1950–1960), Vols. I–IV.
[30] DBPO Series III (Citation1960–), Vols. I–V.
[31] See the neat survey of work in CitationYoung, ‘Update’, 10–13.
[32] CitationDimbleby and Reynolds, An Ocean Apart; CitationReynolds, From World War to Cold War.
[33] CitationMacDonald, Korea; CitationMacDonald, Britain and the Korean War.
[34] CitationBaylis, Anglo-American Defence Relations 1939–1984; CitationHopkins, Oliver Franks and the Truman Administration; CitationKelly, ‘A Very Considerable and Largely Unsung Success’; CitationJackson, The Economic Cold War. On the relationship generally see CitationDanchev, On Specialness. Other notable scholars include Nigel Ashton, C. J. Bartlett, Peter Boyle, Kathleen Burk, Alan Dobson, John Dumbrell, Sylvia Ellis, Ritchie Ovendale, Priscilla Roberts.
[35] CitationOberdorfer, From the Cold War to a New Era; CitationTalbott and Beschloss, At the Highest Levels; CitationGarthoff, The Great Transition.
[36] CitationDockrill, The End of the Cold War Era, 205, 106, 114, 212.
[37] See their respective websites: http://www.wilsoncenter.org and http://www.nsarchive.org
[38] Westad, Citation Brothers in Arms ; and Westad, Citation Decisive Encounters . See also the works of Archie Brown, Curtis Keeble, Dennis Deletante, and Mary Sarotte.
[39] Westad, Citation The Global Cold War , 396.
[40] CitationSmith and Krabbendam, The Cultural Cold War in Western Europe; CitationMitter and Major, Across the Blocs; CitationShaw, ‘Britain and the Cultural Cold War’.
[41] CitationLucas, Freedom's War.
[42] CitationPreston, ‘Bridging the Gap’.
[43] CitationKirby, Religion and the Cold War.
[44] CitationCaute, The Dancer Defects, 3.
[45] CitationCull, ‘“The Man Who Invented Truth”’.
[46] CitationLucas, Freedom's War.
[47] CitationSaunders, Who Paid the Piper?, 5, 415.
[48] CitationWilford, The CIA, the British Left and the Cold War, 299–301.
[49] CitationSmith, ‘Covert British Propaganda’; CitationLucas and Morris, ‘A Very British Crusade’; CitationLashmar and Oliver, Britain's Propaganda War.
[50] CitationWatt, ‘Rumours as Evidence’, 276–7, 344–5n.
[52] CitationMajor and Mitter, ‘Culture’, 241.
[53] CitationWhitfield, The Culture of the Cold War, 231.
[54] See, for example, CitationBeck, ‘Britain and the Cold War's “Cultural Olympics”’.
[55] Shaw, British Cinema and the Cold War, Citation196.
[56] Andrew and Dilks, The Missing Dimension; CitationAndrew, Secret Service; CitationAndrew, KGB; CitationAldrich, The Hidden Hand.
[57] CitationAldrich, ‘Intelligence’, 210–212.
[58] See the deft outline in CitationPelling, Britain and the Marshall Plan. See also CitationMilward, The Reconstruction of Western Europe, which challenged the importance of Marshall Aid to Europe's postwar recovery.
[59] CitationDobson, US Economic Statecraft for Survival, 305.
[60] Westad, ‘CitationSecrets of the Second World’, 268–269.
[61] CitationWalker, The Cold War; CitationDunbabin, The Cold War; CitationCrockatt, The Fifty Years War; CitationBall, The Cold War; CitationSewell, The Cold War; CitationDockrill and Hopkins, The Cold War.
[62] Yet, even after some 20 years of investigation, there are not many general studies of Britain and the Cold War. See CitationWhite, Britain , Détente and Changing East–West Relations; CitationTaylor, Britain and the Cold War; CitationGreenwood, Britain and the Cold War.
[63] Caute, The Dancer Defects, 614–617.
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