Book review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 7

Book review - Essay Example He further jots that for them it is nothing more than history: not all that diverse from the Peloponnesian War. He has channeled this insight into publishing this book that gives a valuable overview, in spite of an individual’s proximity to the Cold War. He outlines three vital lessons of the cold war. First, it was in period of cold war that the military strength stopped to be defining attribute of power itself, which it had been for the past 500 years. Gaddis’ clearest explanation of this phenomenon is the fact: even after the USSR collapsed, it still had its nuclear power and military into place (Gaddis, p14). Gaddis illustrates prior to 1945, great countries fought great wars so often that they tended to be permanent features of the transnational landscape: Lenin even relied or depended on them to give the mechanisms by which capitalism would-self destruct. However, after 1945 wars were limited to those between smaller powers and superpowers, as in vitenam, Korea and Afghanistan or to wars among smaller powers. What never occurred, in spite of world fears that it might, was a full force war involving the Soviet Union, United States and their respective allies. For the first time since timely memorial, no one could be assured of triumph, or surviving a big war. Second, the cold war discouraged dictatorship. Gaddis points out that even though china, the USSR and several states in Europe had authoritarian governments back in 1948 when a well-known book about totalitarian world, 1984, by George Orwell got published, the systems did not extend to the other countries. As 20th century was about to elapse, communism fell out of favor since it failed in delivering its promise of making the workers live better. Third, the cold war period, experienced globalization of democracy, explained by the growing number of democracies as the 20th century was elapsing (Gaddis, p82).