“The winds of change were never warm.”
This is the story behind the story—the Cold War’s beginning told without the sugarcoating. From Stalin’s stolen chair to Truman’s frozen silence, this isn’t your textbook history. It’s a poetic, brutal unpacking of American myth and manufactured consent.
This version is free, because truth should be.
Subject index: Cold War, History, Free Download, Truman, Stalin, Political Writing, Educational, E-book, Nonfiction, PDF, Antiwar, Geopolitics, US History, Soviet Union, Storytelling, Poetic Nonfiction
The introduction is very well written, the style is nice. It leads you very well into— (the sentence was cut off)
And… you’ve lost me.
The guy that had a massive library. That read a bunch… Didn’t understand democracies, not even in theory? I refuse to believe that. You can dislike Stalin, think he is a dictator. But to say he didn’t understand [liberal] democracies? That is ridiculous to me.
I’ll skip the part about him being a dictator, down until the part with the chair, we have already talked about that. I hold that Stalin simply moved the chair out of the way, so that pictures could be taken (looking closer at the video, it seems as if Attlee even helps push the chair out of the way). Besides that, this kind of claim ought to be sourced! (e.g. with a footnote). Also Stalin did not sit down in the video you provided (which you wrote he did).
This is an interesting idea! I have been working on The Cold War & Its Origins (Denna Frank Flemming) wherein the essentially opposite idea is laid out. That Stalin did not know it was the atom bomb and simply thought it a more conventional weapon. So it gives me something to ponder on.
The next part about editing the request also ought to be sourced/footnoted. And the Section III Pravda, even if it is in the sources at the bottom.
Having skimmed your book… I think The Cold War & Its Origins is a much better book.
I agree The Cold War & Its Origins is a great book! I admire Fleming’s diplomatic analysis. Just to clarify though, this isn’t a book—it’s a standalone piece. If the style or approach doesn’t resonate, that’s completely fine. Not everything is for everyone. But circling back repeatedly to compare or critique something you weren’t the audience for feels less like scholarship and more like ego.
Still, thanks for the interaction—and I want my work to foster cognitive dissonance.
That said, I would genuinely love to see your work whenever you complete it. Not to critique or tear it apart the way you approached mine, but because I truly enjoy reading, learning, and discussing this topic.
The part about making an e-book made me mistake this for a book, my bad. Its also why I made recommendations towards footnotes.
As i said, I do specifically like your writing style.
Ego? Maybe. Maybe some autistic desire to see what I think is wrong corrected. I dont really know.
Not being the audience? Not sure how you determine that.
Since you seem to already know of the book, I’m not sure you will be interested in my work, it is simply transforming a scanned PDF version into EPUB, its the same book with the same words, nothing new or interesting.
I am autistic as well, please don’t use our diagnosis thrown around like this, it furthers the stigma against us. Additionally, we can’t use autism as a crutch or excuse. It’s not okay.
Thank you for taking the time to read.