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New York City, the Perfect Setting for a Fictional Cold War Strike

On Collier’s 1950 cover story, “Hiroshima, USA: Can Anything Be Done About It?”
by Sara Blair via Literary Hub on June 13, 2018
Title screen of the film "1983: The Brink of Apocalypse."

Standing on the Brink: The Secret War Scare of 1983

Remembering a time when a toxic cocktail of threats, fear, and misunderstanding nearly led us down the path to Armageddon.
by Jill Kastner via The Nation on May 31, 2018
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30 Years Ago Ronald Reagan Did Something No One Could Have Expected Years Earlier

If we remember correctly how the Cold War ended, we can gain inspiration for how to begin to overcome the “new cold war.”
by David Foglesong via HNN on May 30, 2018
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The Year The World Almost Blew Up – And Nobody Noticed

On November 9, 1983, the Soviet Union nearly ordered a full pre-emptive nuclear strike against the US and Western Europe.
by Taylor Downing via HNN on May 27, 2018

Explaining the 'Mystery' of Numbers Stations

The stations' broadcasts have been attributed to aliens and Cold War relics, but they actually are coded intelligence messages.
by Maris Goldmanis via War on the Rocks on May 24, 2018
Svetlana Stalin being photographed

My Secret Summer With Stalin’s Daughter

In 1967, I was in the middle of one of the world’s buzziest stories.
by Grace Kennan Warnecke via Politico Magazine on April 29, 2018

Your Child Care Conundrum Is an Anti-Communist Plot

Red-baiters deserve at least part of the blame for the shortage of affordable, high-quality pre-K.
by Rebecca Onion via Slate on June 14, 2017

JFK’s Russian Conspiracy

Kennedy had his own secret back channel with Moscow. It may have kept the superpowers from going to war.
by Timothy Naftali via Slate on May 27, 2017

The World Almost Ended One Week in 1983

In 1983, the U.S. simulated a nuclear war with Russia—and narrowly avoided starting a real one. We might not be so lucky next time.
by Nate Jones, J. Peter Scoblic via Slate on April 13, 2017
Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman sitting together.

When the World Became a Huge Penitentiary

An eloquent portrait of underground life among the undocumented and the damned of the earth.
by Emma Goldman, Vivian Gornick via The Nation on March 23, 2015
Black and White photograph of George F. Kennan sitting at a microphone.

U.S. Foreign Policy in the Cold War was Designed by a Bigot

George Kennan's diaries reveal just how much he hated America.
by David Greenberg via The New Republic on April 20, 2014
Young boy holding the Communist sickle and hammer, in black and white

Revisions in Red

A scholar wrestles with the legacy of her grandfather, onetime leader of America’s Communist Party.
by Laura Browder via The Chronicle of Higher Education on November 19, 2012
A frayed and torn American flag flying on a flag pole.

Farewell, the American Century

Rewriting the past by adding in what's been left out.
by Andrew J. Bacevich, Tom Engelhardt via Tom Dispatch on April 28, 2009
Pete Seeger.

American Dreamers

Pete Seeger, William F. Buckley, Jr., and public history.
by William Hogeland via Boston Review on May 1, 2008
Nuclear weapon mushroom cloud

Mythologizing the Bomb

The beauty of the atomic scientists' calculations hid from them the truly Faustian contract they scratched their names to.
by E. L. Doctorow via The Nation on August 14, 1995

Ronald Reagan Jokes about the USSR

Reagan's use of jokes to openly mock the Soviet system were part of his broader Cold War strategy.
via Voices & Visions on March 28, 1988
Screen capture of Carter at a podium giving his human right speech to university graduates.

Jimmy Carter Promotes Human Rights

Carter’s speech lays out his commitment to implement human rights into U.S. foreign policy.
via Voices & Visions on May 22, 1977
Spooking the Censors

Spooking the Censors

In the 1950s, the CIA funded efforts to smuggle great works of literature into the Eastern Bloc.
by Michael O'Donnell via Los Angeles Review of Books on August 13, 2025
John F. Kennedy meeting with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, 1961.

The Way We Understand the Cold War Is Wrong

People tend to assume they know exactly what the Cold War was and when it ended. Anders Stephanson argues that this standard chronology doesn’t fit the facts.
by Anders Stephanson via Jacobin on July 27, 2025
Zbigniew Brzezinski

The Coldest Cold Warrior

How a sharp-elbowed Polish academic with an unpronounceable name helped defeat the Soviet Union.
by Eric Edelman via The Bulwark on May 23, 2025
Film still from "Three Seasons" of a flower seller in Vietnam.

Tony Bui on the Vietnam War’s Cinematic Legacy

Films from Vietnam and Hollywood testify to the range of stories told about the war on-screen and the different memories they embody.
by Will Noah, Tony Bui via Current [The Criterion Collection] on April 29, 2025
A group of Asian men standing with towels around their necks

“Endless Bad Infinity”

A conversation with the creators of a podcast series on the feedback loop of American empire.
by Charlotte Rosen, Noah Kulwin, Brendan James via Public Books on April 22, 2025
George Kennan

The Enigma of George Kennan

An exploration of the contrast between the supreme confidence of Kennan's policy prescriptions and the perpetual turbulence of his inner life.
by Benjamin Nathans via New York Review of Books on April 3, 2025
Joseph McCarthy with a map.
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Joseph McCarthy in Wheeling, West Virginia: Annotated

Senator Joseph McCarthy built his reputation on fear-mongering, smear campaigns, and falsehoods about government employees and their associates.
by Joseph McCarthy, Liz Tracey via JSTOR Daily on March 24, 2025
President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

The First Draft of the Ukraine War’s History

Washington’s policy-makers showed themselves more wicked and feckless than their Vietnam- and Iraq-era predecessors.
by Scott McConnell via The American Conservative on February 19, 2025
Trump's airplane in Greenland.
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Why Trump Wants Greenland—And Why He Probably Won't Get It

He's not the first to set his sights on the island.
by James Patton Rogers, Caroline Kennedy-Pipe via Made By History on January 23, 2025
Ronald and Nancy Reagan smiling and waving at victory celebration.

Honey, I Forgot to Duck

Reagan’s capacity to inhabit and generate legend stemmed from his own impulse to substitute pleasing fictions for inconvenient facts.
by Jackson Lears via London Review of Books on January 15, 2025
Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter Was the True Change Agent of the Cold War

There’s a reason the 39th president is still revered by former Soviet dissidents.
by Michael Hirsh via Foreign Policy on December 29, 2024
Spock and Kirk in a scene from Star Trek.

Star Trek’s Cold War

While America was fighting on the ground, the Federation was fighting in space.
by Tom Nichols via The Atlantic on December 26, 2024
Jesus Jones on stage.

Right Here, Right Now: Jesus Jones and the Post-Cold War Moment

For a brief window at the end of the Cold War, British alt-rock band Jesus Jones tapped into global feelings of optimism and hope.
by Dion Georgiou via The Saturday Evening Post on December 24, 2024
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