Description
Book SynopsisThe Soviet Union and the United States were involved in a complicate interplay of ideological, political, social and cultural factors, which wavered between open rivalry and cautious cooperation. Their relationship was fluctuating. Antagonism was accompanied with developing convergence. The main issue of this anthology is to discuss the attractiveness of polarity. Differing from Europe as well as from other parts of the world, both powers were provided with their history to expand their frontiers in the 19th century. Territorial expansion and the discovery of new ideas and ideologies laid the foundation for their geopolitical hegemony in the 20th century. International authoritative scholars from the United States, Switzerland and Germany give fresh insights in a new understanding of 20th-century geopolitics.
Table of ContentsContents: Christopher L. Miller: Prelude to Rivalry: The Frontier Foundations of Two Global Empires – Martina Winkler: New Worlds? Russian Mental Discoveries of the Northwest Pacific Region – Steven Sabol: Making a Home for the Other: Kazakhs, Sioux and Self-Determination in Soviet and American Contexts, 1920-1930s – Eva M. Stolberg: Images of the Exotic: American-Russian Attitudes toward Orientals – Dina Fainberg: Ordinary Russians and Average Americans: Cold War International Correspondents describe «regular people» on the other side of the Iron Curtain – Gleb Tsipursky: Living «America» in the Soviet Union: The Cultural Practices of «Westernized» Soviet Youth, 1945-1964 – Jeffrey S. Hardy: The Gulag and the Penitentiary Reappraised: Penal Convergence in the United States and Soviet Union, 1950-1960 – Lisa K. Walker: Bridging the Gap: Unseen Enemies and Emerging Infections in the Soviet Union and the United States Before the Advent of the Cold War – Adrian Hänni: Mastermind of Terror: The Soviet Union as the Leader of the International Terror Network.
