Introduction

Cold War – The Cold War in Europe, 1941-55

In this course, Dr Mathias Haeussler (University of Cambridge) explores the origins of the Cold War in Europe. We begin by providing a broad introduction to the Cold War itself – what it was, as well as its long-lasting political, historical and cultural legacy. After that, we turn to the historiographical debate that that surrounded the origins of the Cold War, focusing in particular on the orthodox, revisionist and post-revisionist positons. In the third module, we explore some of the longer-term causes of the Cold War, going all the way back to the February Revolution in 1917, and tracing events from there to the end of the Second World War. In the fourth module, we look more closely at the breakdown of the wartime alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union, before moving on in the fifth module to focus on how the division of Germany into four Occupation Zones would eventually lead to the two great, nuclear-armed alliances in post-war Europe: NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

Introduction

In this module, we provide a broad introduction to the course as a whole, focusing in particular on, what the Cold War actually was, as well as its historical cultural legacy in the film, music, and the public imagination.