Review

General Books

The Greenwood Press Guides to Historic Events of the Twentieth Century is an exceptional series, and this volume is a perfect example. Each book follows a common format which includes a detailed chronology of events, a concise but thorough narrative, conclusions and analysis, biographies of key individuals, primary documents, and an excellent annotated bibliography of books, articles, videos, CD-ROM, Internet resources, and archives. Current, informative, readable, sophisticated in analysis yet easily accessible to a lay audience, the volumes are incredible resources for teacher preparation at both the college and high school levels and for student use. Collectively the series attempts to emphasize the currents that have shaped the contemporary world. All the books in the series are written by top scholars. James A. Nathan, a former foreign service officer, has taught at several universities as well as the Army and Navy War Colleges, and he now holds an Eminent Scholar Chair at Auburn University at Montgomery. Among his six books and seventy articles, The Cuban Missile Crises Revisited (1992) is one of the best books in the field.	1
Nathan's narrative incorporates the latest scholarship, including material from Russian archives, as he captures the drama of the most high-profile crises of the Cold War. Indeed, the book is a primer on the early stages of the Cold War because the author addresses the 1950s coups in Iran and Guatemala, the evolution of nuclear containment, the rise of Castro and U.S. clandestine activities against him, the Bay of Pigs, the various Berlin confrontations, the Vienna Summit, and much more. The story of the unfolding of events in Cuba treats U.S., Russian, and Cuban perspectives. The text is crisp, forceful, and impeccably fair. Although written to be easily digested, the work is thoroughly documented. Conclusions and analysis are judicious and insightful. Nathan makes a particularly valuable point about the linkages between the handling of events in Cuba and the burgeoning Vietnam War. The sprightly, candid biographies, which include entries on McGeorge Bundy, Fidel Castro, Andrei Gromyko, John Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, John McCone, Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, and Adlai Stevenson, are an especially interesting feature. By bringing their careers forward to their deaths (for most of the individuals) and mentioning the memoirs written by many of the individuals, Nathan makes these pieces a valuable source for contemporary students. The appended documents are useful teaching tools as well.	2
The book would be an excellent text in college international relations or recent history courses. Unfortunately, the expensive hardback copy makes this impractical. It remains, however, a wonderful reference source for teacher preparation or library reference use. Many somewhat similar reference books on the Cold War, all of which feature the Cuban Missile Crises as one of the central events, have appeared recently, but none come close to the value of this contribution. Even specialists will find much to admire in the book. Although I have taught the Cold War and have emphasized the Cuban Missile Crises for more than twenty-five years, I found some interesting tidbits for my lectures and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the entire volume. In sum, this is a most useful source for history teachers at both the high school and college levels.	3
Converse College Joe P. Dunn

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