Natural Enemies: The United States and the Soviet Union in the Cold War, 1917-1991

In an attempt to explain the seemingly a priori antagonisms of the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War, Natural Enemies stands apart from previous literature on the topic. Looking at modern European history and the rise of the United States as a superpower, Robert Grogin contends that the Cold War eventually arose out of the clash of two ideologically motivated political systems. Grogin helps us see how the conflict between an American, Wilsonian-inspired politics and Soviet Leninist ideology developed into a gulf that was bound to be antagonistic from the start. The various postwar crises and failed attempts at dZtente frame this struggle, as Grogin charts the geopolitical trajectory of the conflict until its final dissolution. With an eye toward understanding the impact of this period on subsequent world events, Natural Enemies presents an integrated and original interpretation of Cold War history.

Robert C. Grogin is associate professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan. He is the author of The Bergsonian Controversy in France, 1900-1914 (1988).