The Historiography of the Origins of the Cold War Essay -- History His

The Historiography of the Origins of the Cold War There have been many attempts to explain the origins of the Cold War that developed between the capitalist West and the communist East after the Second World War. Indeed, there is great disagreement in explaining the source for the Cold War; some explanations draw on events pre-1945; some draw only on issues of ideology; others look to economics; security concerns dominate some arguments; personalities are seen as the root cause for some historians. So wide is the range of the historiography of the origins of the Cold War that is has been said "the Cold War has also spawned a war among historians, a controversy over how the Cold War got started, whether or not it was inevitable, and (above all) who bears the main responsibility for starting it" (Hammond 4). There are three main schools of thought in the historiography: the traditional view, known alternatively as the orthodox or liberal view, which finds fault lying mostly with the Russians and deems security concerns to be the root cause of the Cold War; the revisionist view, which argues that it is, in fact, the United States and the West to blame for the Cold War and not the Russians, and cites economic open-door interests for spawning the Cold War; finally, the post-revisionist view which finds fault with both sides in the conflict and points to issues raised both by the traditionalists as well as the revisionists for combining to cause the Cold War. While strong arguments are made by historians writing from the traditionalist school, as well as those writing from the revisionist school, I claim that the viewpoint of the post-revisionists is the most accurate in describing the origins of the Cold War. In the years imme... ... sides as having been the cause of the struggle. In evaluating the historiography of the origins of the Cold War, I deem the post-revisionist account to be the most convincing of all those assessments offered thus far. Bibliography McCauley, Martin. The Origins of the Cold War 1941-1949. 2nd Ed. Longman. London, 1995. Hammond, Thomas, Editor. Witnesses to the Origins of the Cold War. University of Washington Press. Seattle, 1982. Gaddis, John Lewis. We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History. Clarendon Press. Oxford, 1997. Saull, Richard. Rethinking Theory and History in the Cold War. Frank Cass. London, 2001. Crozier, Brian et. Al. This War Called Peace. Sherwood Press. London, 1984. Fleming, D. F. The Cold War and its Origins, 1917-1960. George Allen and Unwin. London, 1961. Morgan, Richard. The Unsettled Peace. BBC. London, 1974.