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''   Boyd Tonkin, Independent

''Lively, idiosyncratic, rollicking''   Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Observer

''Masterly ... the one book that anyone who wants to understand the Cold War must read''   John Gray, New Statesman

''A swashbuckling survey of the cold war''   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''   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.