A synthetic history of the Cold War that divides the major events thematically rather than chronologically. The most enlightening chapters outline how the wartime alliance dissolved into hostility and how the West emerged from the moral stupor of detente. The roles of Reagan and Thatcher are understated, however, and a fuller application of Jeanne Kirkpatrick’s

Dictatorships and Double Standards

would have balanced the treatment of client states and moral equivalence. A good bibliography.