Cold War Britain, 1945-1964: New Perspectives. . - Reviews - book review

Contemporary Review, June, 2003 by James Munson

Cold War Britain, 1945-1964: New Perspectives. Michael F. Hopkins, Michael D. Kandiah and Gillian Staerck, editors. Palgrave Macmillan. [pounds sterling]47.50. 244 pages. ISBN 1-4039-0121-X. The essays in this collection began life as papers presented to a 1997 conference on Britain and the Cold War.

Given the passage of time and the opening of archives, historians are now able to take a longer, deeper and wider view of the Cold War and this is reflected in this impressive collection. It is shown here that whilst the U.S. came to dominate the free world's side of the 'war', Britain's role was not so much diminished as altered. Also, the Cold War was far more complicated than is often suspected. As Juhana Aunesluoma shows in her contribution, British relations with Scandanavia were a vital, if often ignored, aspect. The fourteen papers are divided into five parts, with the first serving as an introduction by examining the period 1917-1925. The second part has an essay on the contribution of Herbert Morrison to Anglo-American relations and a discussion of the Tory Party's reaction to the early phase of the 'war'. The third part has four essays examining specific themes in diplomacy: in addition to Miss Aunesluoma's essay there are papers looking at Britain's relation with CoCom between 1948 and 1954, the 'partisans of peace' in Britain between 1948 and 1951 and Britain's relations with Germany between 1945 and 1955. The fourth part, devoted to defence, looks at the role of the Royal Navy from 1945-1955, Britain's strategic thoughts on Western Europe between 1945 and 1948 and the importance of defending the Empire between 1943 and 1957 (this last is a topic often forgotten by historians and political scientists). The final section, Regional Studies, has essays which examine British coal supplies from the Ruhr in 1946, Anglo-American relations with France during the Algerian war, the 'special relationship' as seen in the Middle East from 1957 to 1962 and Britain's part in the creation of Malaysia between 1960 and 196 3. The range of topics covered here is only matched by the high quality of the individual contributions.