• The best books on The Cold War - The Cold War: A World History by Odd Arne Westad
  • The best books on The Cold War - For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War by Melvyn P Leffler
  • The best books on The Cold War - Russia and the Idea of the West by Robert English
  • The best books on The Cold War - The Enigma of 1989: The USSR and the Liberation of Eastern Europe Jacques Lévesque (trans. Keith Martin)
  • The best books on The Cold War - Reagan and Gorbachev by Jack Matlock

The best books on The Cold War, recommended by Archie Brown

American military and economic superiority cannot explain why the Cold War came to an end in the late 1980s and early 1990s. According to the historian Archie Brown, you need to accept the primacy of politics and human agency both in the USSR and the West. He chooses five books to understand the Cold War and offers some broader reflections on the qualities of good political leadership—then and now.