The World Transformed, 1945 to the Present

Michael H. Hunt is the Everett H. Emerson Professor of History Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of several books, including The World Transformed, 1945 to the Present (OUP, 2013) and Ideology and U.S. Foreign Policy (2009). He is also the coauthor, with Steve Levine, of Arc of Empire: America's Wars in Asia from the Philippines to Vietnam (2012).

This is an exceptionally good documentary reader. What makes it so useful is that it is drawn from an inspired mix of primary sources, including government documents, oral history transcripts, letters, and even the texts of handbills and posters from the world over.

• Preface ; Introduction: The Rewards and Challenges of Reading Primary Sources ; Chapter 1. The Cold War: Toward Soviet-American Confrontation ; The United States as the champion of liberty ; 1.1. Woodrow Wilson, address to the Senate, 1917 ; 1.2. Henry R. Luce, on "The American Century," 1941 ; Soviet Communism on the March ; 1.3. Joseph Stalin on "The Foundations of Leninism," 1924 ; 1.4. Teresa Tora?ska, interview with Jakub Berman on Communism's appeal ; The Cold War Takes Shape ; 1.5. American and Soviet Leaders move from war to peace, 1943-1946 ; a. Roosevelt, 21 September 1943 b. Stalin, 6 November 1944 ; c. Yalta conference, 6 February 1945 d. Truman, 20 April 1945 ; e. Truman, 23 April 1945 f. Truman, 25 July 1945 ; g. Stalin, probably late July 1945 h. Stalin, 9 February 1946 ; 1.6. Two diplomats assess the international situation, 1946 ; a. Kennan "long telegram" b. Novikov, report to Molotov ; 1.7. Harry Truman, address to Congress, March 1947 ; 1.8. Andrei Zhdanov, Cominform speech, September 1947 ; 1.9. Responses to the enemy threat ; a. NSC 68, 1950 b. Stalin, 1952 ; The Cold War at Home ; 1.10 Popular antipathy takes hold, 1947-1948 ; a. U.S. cartoon image of Stalin b. Soviet cartoon on U.S. policy ; 1.11. Soviet society feels the chill ; a. Zhdanov, 1946 b. Stonov, "Seven Slashes" ; 1.12. The "Red Menace" in the United States ; a. Hoover, 1947 b. Investigation of a postal worker, 1954 ; Chapter 2. The International Economy: Reform and Revival ; The Japanese Cope with the Devastation of War ; 2.1. Hiroshima residents remember death and destruction ; a. Mr. Katsutani b. Wakasa Ikuko c. Ry?so Fujie ; 2.2. Japanese letters to General MacArthur, voices from the ruins, 1945-1947 ; Europe: Here Come the Americans! ; 2.3. Reinhold Wagnleitner recalls his youthful infatuation with things American ; 2.4. Bertrand Russell, a British intellectual looks across the Atlantic, 1951 ; The State and the Free Market ; 2.5. On the virtues of state involvement in the economy ; a. Keynes, 1932 b. Beveridge report, 1942 c. Sturzo, 1945 ; 2.6. Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, 1945 ; 2.7. Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, 1944 ; Reconstructing the Japanese and European Economies ; 2.8. Japanese Foreign Ministry blueprint for postwar recovery, 1946 ; 2.9. George C. Marshall on a strategy for European recovery, 1947 ; Chapter 3. The Third World: First Tremors in Asia ; China's Triumphant Revolution ; 3.1. Mao Zedong recounts his path to socialism, 1938 ; 3.2. Mao on the founding of the People's Republic of China, 1949 ; 3.3. Peasant perspectives on poverty and village politics ; Vietnam and the Path to National Liberation ; 3.4. Ho Chi Minh on communist anti-colonialism ; 3.5. Ho declaring Vietnamese independence, 1945 ; 3.6. Vietnamese peasants reflect on the Communist appeal ; a. Nguyen Thi Dinh b. Tuan Doanh c. Pham Van Ha ; India on the Eve of Independence ; 3.7. Jawaharlal Nehru on the origins of his social and political outlook, 1941 ; 3.8. Gandhi and Nehru on development strategy, 1945 ; a. Gandhi to Nehru b. Nehru's reply ; 3.9. Nehru reacting to communal violence, 1946 ; 3.10. Rural life: land and gender ; a. Markandaya, Nectar in a Sieve b. Women's verses ; Chapter 4. The Cold War: A Tenuous Accommodation ; Reforming the Soviet System ; 4.1. Nikita Khrushchev recalls life with the elderly Stalin, 1970 ; 4.2. Khrushchev on Stalin's crimes, February 1956 ; 4.3. Milovan Djilas, indictment of the "new class," 1956 ; Spreading Nuclear Fear ; 4.4. Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein on the nuclear threat, 9 July 1955 ; 4.5. The U.S. government perspective ; a. "Facts about Fallout," 1955 b. Eisenhower diary, 1956 ; 4.6. The Soviet perspective ; a. Kurchatov, 1954 b. Khrushchev, 1956 ; Lyndon Johnson Goes to War in Vietnam, 1965 ; 4.7. Johnson on the U.S. commitment to South Vietnam, 7 April ; 4.8. The debate within the Johnson administration ; a. Johnson, 21 June b. Ball, 1 July c. McNamara, 20 July ; 4.9. Johnson on a major commitment in Vietnam, 28 July ; 4.10. Philip Caputo, recollections of a Marine's Vietnam War ; Youth Erupts, 1968 ; 4.11. Stirrings in the United States ; a. "Port Huron Statement," 1962 b. Carmichael speech, 1966 ; 4.12. Paris in upheaval ; a. "How to Train Stuffed Geese" b. Graffiti ; 4.13. Massacre in Mexico City ; Chapter 5. Abundance and Discontent in the Developed World ; The Flowering of Consumer Society ; 5.1. The United States leads the way ; a. Advertisement, circa 1930 b. Saturday Evening Post, 1959 ; 5.2. Changing life in rural France, 1957, 1964, 1974 ; 5.3. Growing up in 1950s Britain: From scarcity to affluence ; 5.4. Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev, the "Kitchen Debate," 1959 ; Economic Culture and the Good Society ; 5.5. Robert Schuman, declaration on European cooperation, 1950 ; 5.6. Pope John XXIII, "Mater et Magistra," 1961 ; 5.7. Morita Akio, on the collectivist principles guiding Sony, 1986 ; The Rise of an Environmental Movement ; 5.8. Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962 ; 5.9. Donella H. Meadows et al. The Limits to Growth, 1972 ; 5.10. Indira Gandhi offering a third-world perspective, 1972 ; Feminism in the North Atlantic World ; 5.11. Simone de Beauvoir on "The Second Sex," 1949 ; 5.12. NOW statement on rights for American women, 1966 ; 5.13. The awakening of the French feminist movement ; a. Anne Tristan, 1970 b. Le Torchon Brule, 1972 ; Chapter 6. Third-World Hopes at High Tide ; Egypt under Nasser ; 6.1. Gamal Abdul Nasser, "The Philosophy of the Revolution," 1952 ; 6.2. Nasser "The National Charter," 1962 ; 6.3. Sayyid Qutb on an alternative model based on Islam, 1964 ; 6.4 Amina Said, on women and the revolution, 1973 ; Nkrumah's Vision for Ghana and Africa ; 6.5. Kwame Nkrumah on colonialism and independence, 1942-1945 ; 6.6. Nkrumah on unity for Africa, 1963 ; 6.7. Nkrumah on socialism for Ghana, 1964 ; 6.8. Nkrumah writing in exile on hopes for a global black-power movement, 1968 ; 6.9. Ayi Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, 1969 ; Castro's Drive to Create a New Cuba ; 6.10. Fidel Castro, "history will absolve me," 1953 ; 6.11. Castro, declaration of Havana, 1962 ; 6.12. Gabriel Capote Pacheco, a popular perspective, 1969-1970 ; Sweeping Visions and Bold Strategies ; 6.13. Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, 1961 ; 6.14. The Maoist revolutionary appeal ; a. Lin Biao on people's war, 1965 b. Cultural Revolution poster ; 6.15. Che Guevara on the insurrectionary impulse, 1967 ; Chapter 7. The Cold War Comes to a Close ; The Struggle over Detente ; 7.1. Willy Brandt on bridging the two Germanys, 1969 ; 7.2. President Richard Nixon, making the case for a policy of detente, 1971 ; 7.3. Ronald Reagan, dubbing the Soviet Union the "focus of evil," 1983 ; 7.4. Mikhail Gorbachev, reassessing Soviet foreign policy, 1986 ; Gorbachev's Reforms ; 7.5. Gorbachev recalling the personal origins of his reform impulse ; 7.6. Gorbachev on glasnost and perestroika, 1987 ; 7.7. Elite supporters reflect on the Gorbachev reform program ; a. Zaslavskaya b. Burlatsky ; 7.8. KGB report on the deteriorating political situation, 1991 ; The Revolutions of '89 in Europe ; 7.9. Critique of the Polish Communist Party, 1978 ; 7.10. Vaclav Havel, "Power of the Powerless," 1979 ; 7.11. East German Workers on socialism and national reunification, 1990 ; Chapter 8. Global Markets: One System, Three Centers ; Championing Free Market Orthodoxy ; 8.1. Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, 1962 ; 8.2. Margaret Thatcher, promising free market prosperity for Britain, 1977 ; 8.3. Worker anxiety in Reagan's free market America, mid-1980s ; 8.4. Bill Clinton, on NAFTA and international free trade, 1993 ; 8.5. A critical Mexican perspective on NAFTA, 1992 ; From the EC to the EU: Tightening European Bonds ; 8.6. Margaret Thatcher, principles for European integration, 1988 ; 8.7. Jacques Delors, offering his vision for European integration, 1989 ; 8.8. Francois Mitterand. the prospects for an integrated Europe, 1995 ; China's Authoritarian Capitalism ; 8.9. Students criticize the Communist regime and its market reforms, 1989 ; 8.10. Deng, remarks to military commanders, 1989 ; 8.11. Rural support for market reforms and political stability, 1989 ; Chapter 9. Divergent Paths in the Third World ; The Iranian Revolution ; 9.1. Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlevi on the problems of his regime, 1970-1977 ; 9.2. Ruhollah Khomeini's Islamic challenge, 1963-1980 ; 9.3 Poster depicting Khomeini triumphant ; 9.4. The villagers of Deh Koh and the Islamic revolution, 1978-1980 ; Guatemala's Brutal Civil War ; 9.5. Mayan women on poverty and cultural autonomy ; 9.6. Ladina elites on their privileged world ; 9.7. Interview with a government torturer ; Israelis and Palestinians in a "fatal embrace" ; 9.8. Statement of Arab views, 1946 ; 9.9. Israel's declaration of independence, 1948 ; 9.10. The Palestinian Liberation Organization, National Charter, 1968 ; 9.11. The Likud Party on occupied land, 1977 ; 9.12. Hamas promoting the first intifada, 1988 ; Bringing down apartheid in South Africa ; 9.13 Hendrik F. Verwoerd, on the essentials of apartheid, 1948 ; 9.14 Nelson Mandela, "Rivonia" trial statement, 19649.15 Mark Mathabane on his education in violence, 1976 ; 9.16 Breaking the deadlock over apartheid, 1990 ; a. de Klerk b. Mandela ; Chapter 10. In the Grip of Globalization: The 1990s and Beyond ; The Backlash against Globalization ; 10.1 Global inequalities ; a. Three families, 1993-1994 b. Data on long-term trends ; 10.2. "The Siena Declaration" on fundamental structural flaws, 1998 ; 10.3. Multinational corporations ride roughshod ; a. Schlosser on McDonald's b. Bove c. Saro-Wiwa ; 10.4. Dueling over globalization: irresistible jugernaut or dangerous dogma, 1999 ; a. Friedman b. Ramonet Confronting climate change ; 10.5. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ; a. 1990 report b. 2007 report c. 2013 preliminary report ; 10.6. India's "National Action Plan on Climate Change," 200810.7. International attitudes toward global warming, 2009 Human Rights Spoken Here-and Everywhere ; 10.8. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 ; 10.9. Debating women's rights, 1995 ; a. Fourth World Conference on Women b. Vatican Press Office ; 10.10. Regional resistance ; a. "Cairo Declaration," 1990 b. Singapore's position, 1993 ; 10.11. Human rights and the environment, 1994 ; Chapter 11. Regional Diversity in a New Century ; An Exceptional American Conceit ; 11.1. Presidential pronouncements on national identity and mission. ; a. George H. W. Bush, 1991 b. Clinton, 1995 ; c. George W. Bush, 2002 d. Obama, 2009 e. Obama, 2010 ; 11.2. Opinion world wide on the United States, 2012 ; The Middle East in Conflict ; 11.3. Osama bin Laden, "A Declaration of Jihad," 1996 ; 11.4. Recep Tayyip Erdo?an on Turkey's role, 2004 ; 11.5. Voices from Tahrir Square, 2011 ; 11.6. Bashar al-Assad, defending the Syrian regime, 2013 ; 11.7. Hasan Rouhani, an Iranian perspective, 2013 ; The BRIC Bloc ; 11.8. An establishment intellectual on China's rise, 2012 11.9. Vladimir Putin on Russia's revival, 201211.10. Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, a Brazilian view, 2009 ; 11.11. An India establishment study, 2012 Europe Loses Its Way ; 11.12. Young people on dim prospects in an age of austerity, 201311.13. Making the popular case against immigration ; a. British National Party brochure b. France's National Front poster ; c. Germany's National Democratic Party poster ; d. Italy's Northern League poster ; 11.14. Collective views on life in hard times, 2013