Ice and Snow in the Cold War: Histories of Extreme Climatic Environments

Julia Herzberg · Christian Kehrt · Franziska Torma

oct 2018 · Environment in History: International Perspectives Libro 14 · Berghahn Books

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The history of the Cold War has focused overwhelmingly on statecraft and military power, an approach that has naturally placed Moscow and Washington center stage. Meanwhile, regions such as Alaska, the polar landscapes, and the cold areas of the Soviet periphery have received little attention. However, such environments were of no small importance during the Cold War: in addition to their symbolic significance, they also had direct implications for everything from military strategy to natural resource management. Through histories of these extremely cold environments, this volume makes a novel intervention in Cold War historiography, one whose global and transnational approach undermines the simple opposition of “East” and “West.”

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Julia Herzberg Professor for the History of East Central Europe and Russia in Early Modern Times at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich. She is currently working on an environmental history of “frost” in Russia that scrutinizes various social and cultural aspects of Russia’s harsh climate. Over the last few years she has done research on the environmental history of Central Eastern Europe and Russia. Her publications include the collection Umweltgeschichte(n): Ostmitteleuropa von der Industrialisierung bis zum Postsozialismus (2013), coedited with Martin Zückert und Horst Förster.