A History of the Cold War

The Atlantic and Its Enemies

The Atlantic and its Enemies is Norman Stone's personal, uncompromising and provocative history of how the West 'won' the Cold War. 
 
 For decades after the end of the Second World War, most of the globe either laboured under Communist rule or else was lost in a violent stagnancy that seemed doomed to permanence. For every Atlantic success there seemed to be a dozen Communist or Third World successes, as the USSR and its proxies, whether in Berlin, Cuba, Vietnam or China, crushed dissent and humiliated the United States on both military and cultural grounds. 
 
 Then, suddenly, the Atlantic won - economically, ideologically, militarily - with astonishing speed and comprehensiveness. 
 
 With wit and brio, Norman Stone's The Atlantic and its Enemies offers a unique perspective on events, from Vietnam to glasnost, and draws on his own experiences - such as his time in a Slovak prison - to show both the tragedy and the absurdity of the struggle that divided the world for over forty years. 
 
 'Opinionated, mischievous, enthralling ... an exhilarating read' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Boyd Tonkin, Independent 
 
 'Lively, idiosyncratic, rollicking' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Observer 
 
 'Masterly ... the one book that anyone who wants to understand the Cold War must read' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; John Gray, New Statesman 
 
 'A swashbuckling survey of the cold war' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Mark Mazower, Financial Times 
 
 '[Stone] has a terrific eye for detail, bringing to life everything from the ruins of Germany to Ronald Reagan's White House with a wonderfully waspish turn of phrase' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Economist 
 
 Norman Stone is one of Britain's most celebrated historians. He is the author of The Eastern Front, 1914-1917, Hitler: An Introduction, Europe Transformed and World War One: A Short History.

This book is a brilliant chronicling of the Atlantic's counter-attack and its dsorry prelude - a forthright, brave history, full of wit and humanity, and readable to a degree that will delight all but the green-eyed

An intellectual autobigoraphy concealed within a major history book ... a powerful alternative to the Left 'liberal' reading of Cold War history, without sounding in the least triumphalist

Stone's eye for the telling detail gives his account of the cold war years an edge of authenticity lacking from more conventional histories ... the one book that anyone who wants to understand the cold war as it developed must read

He paints on a broad canvas, showing how the Cold War unfolded ... [he] also delves into less obvious topics for a Cold War book ... Mr. Stone doesn't stop to address the contemporary crisis, but The Atlantic and Its Enemies is an inspiring reminder that the West has risen to meet such challenges before, helped at crucial moments by bold leaders

Norman Stone is one of Britain's most celebrated historians. He is the author of The Eastern Front, 1914-1917, Hitler, Europe Transformed and World War One: A Short History. He has taught at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Bilkent, where he is now Director of the Turkish-Russian Centre.

Those who survived the Second World War stared out onto a devastated, morally ruined world. Much of Europe and Asia had been so ravaged that it was unclear whether any form of normal life could ever be established again. 
 
Everywhere the 'Atlantic' world (the USA, Britain and a handful of allies) was on the defensive and its enemies on the move. For every Atlantic success there seemed to be a dozen Communist or 'Third World' successes, as the USSR and its proxies crushed dissent and humiliated the United States on both military and cultural grounds. For all the astonishing productivity of the American, Japanese and mainland western European economies (setting aside the fiasco of Britain's implosion), most of the world was either under Communist rule or lost in a violent stagnancy that seemed doomed to permanence. Then, suddenly, the Atlantic won - economically, ideologically, militarily - with astonishing speed and completeness.

The Eastern Front 1914-1917

A groundbreaking historical study, Norman Stone's The Eastern Front 1914-1917 was the very first authoritative account of the Russian Front in the First World War to be published in the West. 
 
 In this now-classic history he dispels the myths surrounding a still relatively little-known aspect of the war, showing how inefficiency rather than economic shortage led to Russia's desperate privations and eventual retreat. He also interprets the connection between the war and the chaos that followed, arguing that although fighting had almost ceased by the end of 1916, Russia was still in turmoil - undergoing a period of change that would inexorably lead towards revolution. 
 
 'A landmark in its field ... it is still the best book on the eastern front' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Orlando Figes 
 
 'A classic account ... that even after thirty years remains essential reading' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Sunday Times 
 
 'Without question one of the classics of post-war historical scholarship' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Niall Ferguson 
 
 'One of the outstanding historians of our age' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Spectator 
 
 'Fills an enormous gap in our knowledge and understanding of the Great War' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Sunday Telegraph 
 
 Norman Stone is one of Britain's most celebrated historians. He is the author of The Atlantic and its Enemies, Hitler: An Introduction, Europe Transformed and World War One: A Short History.

Norman Stone is Professor at Bilkent University. He was Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford from 1984-1997.

'Without question one of the classics of post-war historical scholarship, Stone's boldly conceived and brilliantly executed book opened the eyes of a generation of young British historians raised on tales of the Western trenches to the crucial importance of the Eastern Front in the First World War' Niall Ferguson 'Scholarly, lucid, entertaining, based on a thorough knowledge of Austrian and Russian sources, it sharply revises traditional assumptions about the First World War.' Michael Howard

A Short History

World War One

A dazzling, iconoclastic account of the terrible disaster of 1914 - 1918

'Do we need another history of the First World War? The answer in the case of Norman Stone's short book is, yes - because of its opinionated freshness and the unusual, sharp facts that fly about like shrapnel' Literary Review 
 
In 1914 a new kind of war, and a new kind of world, came about. Fourteen million combatants died, a further twenty million were wounded, four empires were destroyed and even the victors' empires were fatally damaged. The First World War marked a revolution in the technology of slaughter as trench warfare, artillery barrages, tanks and chemical warfare made their mark on the battlefield for the first time. 
 
 The sheer complexity and scale of the war have encouraged historians to write books on a similar scale. But in only 140 pages, Norman Stone distils a lifetime of teaching, arguing and thinking to reframe the overwhelming disaster whose aftershocks shaped the rest of the twentieth century. 
 
 'Bold, provocative and witty ... one of the outstanding historians of our age' Spectator 
 
'Entertaining and insightful ... one of the handful of living historians who can write with style and wit' Tibor Fischer, Sunday Telegraph, Books of the Year

Bold, provocative and witty ... one of the outstanding historians of our age

Do we need another history of the First World War? The answer in the case of Norman Stone's short book is, yes - because of its opinionated freshness and the unusual, sharp facts that fly about like shrapnel

One of the most original modern commentaries on the conflict ... this stimulating work can be read for pleasure in an afternoon, even if you are not particularly interested in World War One. That truly is the mark of a great history book

Exhilarating ... scintillating ... a heady cocktail

Entertaining and insightful ... one of the handful of living historians who can write with style and wit

A corker of a book ... brings more clarity to this complex, much-written about subject than some historians manage to do in books three or four times as long

Norman Stone is one of Britain's most celebrated historians. For the period 1984-97 he was Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. Professor Stone's publications include The Eastern Front 1914-1917 (Winner of the Wolfson Prize and published by Penguin) Hitler and Europe Transformed. He lives in Oxford and Istanbul.

The First World War was the overwhelming disaster from which everything else in the twentieth century stemmed. Fourteen million combatants died, a further twenty million were wounded, four empires were destroyed and even the victors&rsquo; empires were fatally damaged. The sheer complexity and scale of the war have encouraged historians to write books on a similar scale. But now Norman Stone, one of Britain&rsquo;s greatest historians, has achieved the almost impossible task of writing a terse, brilliantly written, opinionated and witty short history of the conflict. In only 140 pages he distils a lifetime of teaching, arguing and thinking into what will be one of the most talked about history books of years to come.

Norman Stone

Professor Norman Stone has achieved the impossible; he has somehow written a comprehensive history of the Second World War in just under 200 pages, summarising the entire conflict while leaving out nothing of importance and bringing his lifetime of study of the subject to bear in a witty, incisive and immensely readable way ... Norman Stone has proved yet again that he is one of the most original, witty and powerful British historians writing today

The joy and strength of this compact history, besides its trenchancy and, in the publishers' words, the "sceptical and humorous intelligence at work", is its narrative clarity ... a book to clear the mind

Novices will receive a painless introduction, but educated readers should not pass up the highly opinionated prologue and epilogue and the author's trademark acerbic commentary throughout ... Readers of all stripes ... will find plenty to ponder

Norman Stone

Praise for World War Two

Professor Norman Stone has achieved the impossible; he has somehow written a comprehensive history of the Second World War in just under 200 pages, summarising the entire conflict while leaving out nothing of import ...

The joy and strength of this compact history, besides its trenchancy and, in the publishers' words, the "sceptical and humorous intelligence at work", is its narrative clarity ... a book to clear the mind

Novices will receive a painless introduction, but educated readers should not pass up the highly opinionated prologue and epilogue and the author's trademark acerbic commentary throughout ... Readers of all stripes ...

Professor Norman Stone has achieved the impossible; he has somehow written a comprehensive history of the Second World War in just under 200 pages, summarising the entire conflict while leaving out nothing of import ...

The joy and strength of this compact history, besides its trenchancy and, in the publishers' words, the "sceptical and humorous intelligence at work", is its narrative clarity ... a book to clear the mind

Novices will receive a painless introduction, but educated readers should not pass up the highly opinionated prologue and epilogue and the author's trademark acerbic commentary throughout ... Readers of all stripes ...

Professor Norman Stone has achieved the impossible; he has somehow written a comprehensive history of the Second World War in just under 200 pages, summarising the entire conflict while leaving out nothing of import ...

The joy and strength of this compact history, besides its trenchancy and, in the publishers' words, the "sceptical and humorous intelligence at work", is its narrative clarity ... a book to clear the mind

Novices will receive a painless introduction, but educated readers should not pass up the highly opinionated prologue and epilogue and the author's trademark acerbic commentary throughout ... Readers of all stripes ...

Books by Norman Stone

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