Book contents
- The Cambridge World History of Violence
- The Cambridge History of Violence
- The Cambridge World History of Violence
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Contributors to Volume IV
- Introduction to Volume IV
- Part I Race, Religion and Nationalism
- Part II Intimate and Gendered Violence
- Part III Warfare, Colonialism and Empire in the Modern World
- Part IV The State, Revolution and Social Change
- 17 Change and Continuity in Collective Violence in France, 1780–1880
- 18 Geographies of Genocide: The European Rimlands, 1912–1948
- 19 Concentration Camps
- 20 Violence in Revolutionary China, 1949–1963
- 21 Anti-Communist Violence in Indonesia, 1965–1966
- 22 The Violence of the Cold War
- 23 Quotidian Violence in the French Empire, 1890–1940
- 24 Violence, the State and Revolution in Latin America
- 25 Structural Violence during the Cambodian Genocide, 1975–1979
- 26 The Origins of Modern Terrorism
- Part V Representations and Constructions of Violence
- Index
- References
22 - The Violence of the Cold War
from Part IV - The State, Revolution and Social Change
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2020
- The Cambridge World History of Violence
- The Cambridge History of Violence
- The Cambridge World History of Violence
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Contributors to Volume IV
- Introduction to Volume IV
- Part I Race, Religion and Nationalism
- Part II Intimate and Gendered Violence
- Part III Warfare, Colonialism and Empire in the Modern World
- Part IV The State, Revolution and Social Change
- 17 Change and Continuity in Collective Violence in France, 1780–1880
- 18 Geographies of Genocide: The European Rimlands, 1912–1948
- 19 Concentration Camps
- 20 Violence in Revolutionary China, 1949–1963
- 21 Anti-Communist Violence in Indonesia, 1965–1966
- 22 The Violence of the Cold War
- 23 Quotidian Violence in the French Empire, 1890–1940
- 24 Violence, the State and Revolution in Latin America
- 25 Structural Violence during the Cambodian Genocide, 1975–1979
- 26 The Origins of Modern Terrorism
- Part V Representations and Constructions of Violence
- Index
- References
Summary
The violence of the Cold War takes up a unique place in the history of violence. The Cold War era is often described as an exceptionally peaceful time in modern history. In this scheme, the violence of the Cold War was primarily of an imaginary kind, which contributed to containing the outbreak of real violence especially among the industrialized nations of the West. The idea of the Cold War as a long peace or an imaginary violence, however, does not fit with how many communities in the broader world experienced the second half of the twentieth century, especially those that underwent the bipolarization of politics as part of the political process of decolonization. In these communities, the Cold War signifies an extraordinarily violent time, characterized by the crisis of civil war and the routinization of other exceptional forms of political violence, which affected intimate human lives as well as the order of political society. An understanding of the Cold War as part of the history of violence requires, therefore, coming to terms with the radical disparity in historical experience between the West and the postcolonial world.
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- Information
- The Cambridge World History of Violence , pp. 449 - 467Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020