The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941-1947

This book is a classic history of the origins of the Cold War. It must be seen in terms of the debates when it was written. The first interpretations of the Cold War told a story of an aggressive, expansionist Soviet Union subverting democracy in Eastern Europe. In the 1960s and 1970s, revisionists began to tell a different story about American economic expansion ("imperialism") as a cause of the Cold War. In this book, Gaddis presents a narrative that takes both sides of this debate seriously. He does not write in an "academic" style but aims instead at the general reader. This is the essential post-revisionist history of the Cold War, though he and many others have updated the history after the opening of Soviet archives in the 1990s. It's a good read, and I highly recommend it despite its age.

Gaddis eloquently addresses the causes of the Cold War. Gaddis discusses the policy of the Truman administration and how a "get tough" policy led to the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.