The Cold War Revisited

Date : Sat., May 02, 1998 to Sun., May 03, 1998 Category : Butcher History Institute

The Cold War is the blanket term we use for the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, the two superpowers that emerged from World War II, and which came to an end when the Soviet Union imploded and dissolved in 1991.  But everything about that struggle is disputed: when it began, why it began, what the stakes were, how it was actually waged, when and why it ended, and even whether it was a proper struggle at all.  Some of these disagreements are arguments about facts.  Some of them, however, are arguments about politics, values, and ideals — arguments about the legitimacy and morality of the participants in the Cold War.

One of the results of the end of the Cold War and the opening of former Soviet archives has been that many of the questions of fact can now be answered.  These answers, however, raise new questions: how do we interpret what we now know, and what lessons, if any, can we draw for the future?

 

Topics and Speakers

Welcoming Remarks

05/02/1998 - 12:55 PM to 1:00 PM

Origins: The History of the History

05/02/1998 - 1:00 PM to 2:15 PM
Walter A. McDougall

University of Pennsylvania

American Strategy and Purposes

05/02/1998 - 2:30 PM to 3:30 PM
Marc Trachtenberg

University of Pennsylvania

Soviet Strategy and Purposes

05/02/1998 - 3:45 PM to 5:45 PM
Mark Kramer

Harvard University

Keynote: What We Now Know about the Cold War

05/02/1998 - 7:30 PM
John Lewis Gaddis

Yale University

Related Article(s):

The New Cold War History

The End of the Cold War

05/02/1998 - 8:30 PM to 9:45 PM

Panel Discussion: Morality and Statecraft

05/02/1998 - 9:45 AM to 11:00 AM
David Gress

FPRI

Richard Immerman

Temple University

Mark Kramer

Harvard University

Related Article(s):

The Cold War Revisited

Workshop: Teaching the Cold War

05/02/1998 - 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Paul Dickler

Neshaminy High School

James Sanzare

FPRI

Closing Remarks

05/02/1998 - 12:00 PM to 12:10 PM
Alan Luxenberg

Director - Wachman Center for Civic and International Literacy

Location

Venue

Gregg Conference Center

270 S. Bryn Mawr Ave.
PA Bryn Mawr 19010

Registration links

Register Deadline

What Participants Receive:

Social studies and history teachers, curriculum supervisors and junior college faculty are invited to apply for participation in the History Institute.  Thirty participants will be selected to receive:

*     free room and board

*     assistance in designing curriculum and special projects based on the  History Institute

*     stipends of $200 in exchange for curriculum units based on the History Institute, plus a representative selection of student work

*     free copies of We Now Know, by John Lewis Gaddis, and Promised Land, Crusader State, by Walter McDougall

*     supplementary resource materials

*     partial travel scholarships available in select cases