The Cold War A New History By John Lewis Gaddis Essay

I chose The Cold War: A New History by John Lewis Gaddis for my book to review. I originally read parts of this book for History of the International System, but we did not read the entire book in class, only certain chapters. It’s been two years since I’ve picked up the book, and after reading about the Cold War in the context of U.S. foreign policy rather than simply an international history class, it seems like an entirely new book. I really like how the book into broken up into a series of themes, rather than a chronological re-telling of history year by year. More than that, his book is not so much a history of the war as it a re-telling and careful account, or rather, an interpretation of the Cold War to his readers. Gaddis published this book in 2005, long after the Cold War ended with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Another interesting feature of this book is that Gaddis writes in almost over-simplistic terms to illustrate his points. The conflicts between the communists and the capitalists; between Stalin and the free world; and between right and wrong are heavily emphasized in this book. However I did not walk away from reading this book with one clear theme, lesson, or moral from Gaddis about the Cold War as a whole. Maybe this was Gaddis’s intention, but I certainly expected him to have an overarching lesson for those of us who were born after the end of the Cold War, myself included, as his presentation of the Cold War themes were certainly based on hisShow MoreRelatedThe Cold War: A New History by John Lewis Gaddis831 Words   |  4 Pagesof American history was analyzed. The Cold War is rampant with American foreign policy and influential in shaping the modern world. Strategies of Containment outlines American policy from the end of World War II until present day. Gaddis outlines the policies of presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, including policies influenced by others such as George Kennan, Jo hn Dulles, and Henry Kissinger. The author, John Lewis Gaddis has written many books on the Cold War and is an avidRead MoreThe Cold War : A New History By John Lewis Gaddis1690 Words   |  7 Pagessince the dawn of American history. The American revolt against the arrogant, totalitarian regime set a precedent for the future events in which the nation came together to oppose anything that went against the concept of democracy, and capitalism. Communism, or Marxism posed as a huge threat to the free mined Western societies, thus resulting in world wars that left perilous aftermaths, and bred an ongoing conflict between the two global political establishments. The Cold War, which is most commonlyRead MoreAnalysis Of The Cold War : A New History By John Lewis Gaddis2049 Words   |  9 PagesThe Cold War: A New History by John Lewis Gaddis The Cold War: A New History written by John Lewis Gaddis (a professor at Yale University who wrote other books such as The United States and the Origins of the Cold War and Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security) delivers a summarized, yet skewed interpretation of what had happened during the era known as the Cold War. Throughout the book, the author attempts to provide history of the Cold War, whileRead MoreJohn Lewis Gaddis s The Cold War1414 Words   |  6 PagesJohn Lewis Gaddis, is a leading American Historian of the Cold War. He is the Professor of history at Yale University. He is already the author of six books on the same subject. The Cold War: A New History, however, has been written on a less cosmic level. He has distilled a life time of research into this short but comprehensive book. He has given new avenues to old controversies in worldly and stylish, yet direct and plain-spoken manner. The book offers a lot of summari es to intricate historicalRead MoreSurprise, Security, And The American Experience980 Words   |  4 Pagesexperience There are a lot of things analyze the shifts in American foreign policy have been written before the famous day America lose it sense of security Sept 11. Thing like news reports, articles and books. Theses are some of those books :Rogue Nation, The Bubble of American Supremacy, Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State. There are some books who are against America that don t hesitate to compare it to evil countries like Germany during ww2. Then there are book thatRead MoreThe Cold War as the Result of Fear of Soviet Expansion Essay example1472 Words   |  6 PagesThe Cold War as the Result of Fear of Soviet Expansion At the end of the Second World War only two out of the all the great powers were left standing. Germany and Japan had been crushed in the war and Britain and France were weakened economically and politically. The United States, who had not seen much fighting on her shores, emerged from the war economically and politically intact as a great nuclear power and Russia, although weakened economically, had the largestRead MoreWas President Truman Responsible for the Cold War? Essay1105 Words   |  5 Pagesinto office right at the end of World War II, after the death of President Franklin Roosevelt. Almost immediately after becoming president, Truman learned of the Manhattan Project, and had to decide whether or not to use the atomic bomb. With the advice of James Byrnes, Secretary of State, Truman decided to drop two atomic bombs on Japan, in part to demonstrate America’s power to the world and gain a political advantage in Europe (Offner 294). After World War II ended, there were negotiations aboutRead MoreRethinking Cold War History, By John Lewis Gaddis1340 Words   |  6 PagesGaddis, John L. We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press1997. We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History, is a book about the Cold War. This book was written by John Lewis Gaddis. John L. Gaddis is a Cold War historian. He portrays the Cold War in English and through the dialect of others. The thesis of this book is, I seek to situate this book at a particular point in time, not to claim timelessness for it. This is what I think we know now but did not knowRead MoreThe Cold War : A New History1650 Words   |  7 PagesThe Cold War lasted for forty years, from 1945 to 1985. Few historians took the time to address the events as they unfolded thus leaving most people with little or no explanations of the development of the war. During this fearful period, nine presidents served Americans and each president thought that the war carried a lot of dangers for forty five years. Accordingly, young Americans, Soviets and other citizens of the world require the services of a scholar with extraordinary gifts to provide insightRead MoreThe European Dimension Of The Cold War1458 Words   |  6 PagesThe Cold War between two rival super powers – the young United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – was an inevitable one. The relationship between the former war allies had begun to dissolve during the Second World War and eventually came to blows in 1947. First, it’s important to note that the Cold War was something that was only between the USA and the USSR is a fallacy. David Reynolds’ piece titled The European Dimension to the Cold War is a historiographical piece

Realism In A Wagner Matinee - 894 Words

Realism Argumentative Essay â€Å"I never knew what she found in the shining current of it; I never knew how far it bore her, or past what happy islands†¦Ã¢â‚¬  These words of Frances Cather show the realism aspect told in the story. Realism is often portrayed as someone or something who has dealt with a rough, or everyday life. Growing up Georgiana sacrifices almost all of her comforts to be with her husband out in the country, making her a â€Å"slave† in her own home. Frances Cather shows realism in â€Å"A Wagner Matinee† when she describes her aunt as â€Å"She wore a black stuff dress whose ornamentation showed that she has surrendered herself unquestionably into the hands of a country dressmaker. My poor aunt’s figure, however, would have presented†¦show more content†¦By writing this Cather showed realism in the sense of talking about the hardworking, everyday jobs and lives of the lower class American people. Cather shows the everyday lives of lower class citizens during the time of the homestead act by writing in a realist tone. Cather also showed realism by talking about the everyday activities of lower class citizens. â€Å"During the three winters when I was riding herd for my uncle, my aunt, after cooking three meals for half a dozen farm-hands, and putting the six children to bed, would often stand until midnight at her ironing-board, hearing me at the kitchen table beside her recite Latin declensions and conjugations..† (Cather 387). This quote talks about the duties Cather’s aunt took on for the family.By telling us about the daily chores Cather’s aunt took on for her family proves the realism aspect in the story. â€Å"I became, in short, the gangling farmer-boy my aunt had known, scourged with chilblains and bashfulness, my hands cracked and raw from the corn-husking.† (Cather 385). This quote talks about when the boy remembers when his aunt knew him as a Cornhusker. This shows the everyday tasks lower class citizens were faced with. By talking about the daily tasks of t he people of the time it explores the part of realism that has to do with everyday things of everyday people, especially due to their social class. While reading the story, character and scenery details are constantly placedShow MoreRelatedThemes of Regionalism in Cathers A Wagner Matinee Essay617 Words   |  3 Pagespublished a short story, A Wagner Matinee. Highly educated and informed, Cather demonstrated realism techniques and language throughout the short story. Most of her writing, published at the end of the realist era, was not well accepted. A Wagner Matinee strongly contradicts literary techniques and devices of Romanticism while emphasizing regionalism, a form of realism. In comparing and contrasting literary techniques and style of the Romantic and realism eras, A Wagner Matinee, by Willa Cather, wouldRead MoreFeminism And The American Equal Rights Association1550 Words   |  7 PagesWilla Cather, and Edith Wharton. In the speech to the American Equal Rights Association, Truth reveals that women do not have rights to present their voices in the court. Cather addresses women’s devastating labor life aft er the marriage in â€Å"A Wagner Matinee.† Likewise, in â€Å"April Shower†, Wharton portrays men’s criticism upon economically successful women. American female authors of the late 19th and early 20th century demonstrates the ideas of Feminism by men objecting to representation in politics

Terracog Global Positioning System free essay sample

TerraCog is a privately held company specializing in high-quality Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and fishing sonar equipment. The company has a strong customer base of serious outdoor enthusiasts who value the durability and value-added features of TerraCog’s GPS units. In spring 2007, the company embarked on a project to enhance their high-quality GPS handheld with satellite imagery; the project was named Project Aerial. The decision to develop the new enhancement resulted from increased customer demand, and lost market share to competitor Posthaste, who in October 2006, introduced BirdsI, the â€Å"only handheld GPS with satellite imagery†. By the end of 2007, TerraCog had developed a prototype of their version of a GPS unit with satellite imagery and planned to launch the product by the 2008 holiday season. Emma Richardson, the new Executive Vice President, was tasked with the launch of the newly developed GPS unit she needed to finalize decisions on costs, pricing, and initial production volume. Emma’s main focus as the new EVP was to move the company toward greater operational alignment and increase cross-departmental cooperation. This focus was in response to existing tension between the U. S headquarters in Chicago and the production team in China. The development of the new Aerial would no doubt add to this tension. The design specifications of the Aerial GPS were handed off to the prod uction team; but sales and finance were running into problems with pricing due to increased production and design costs.Emma tasked Allen Roth, the Director of design development, and Tony Barren, Director of production, with reducing the costs so that sales could meet their price point. They were successful in only reducing costs by 8%, but this was not acceptable to sales. With the current costs, sales would have to price the product at $475; $75 over its competitor. The VP of Sales, Ed Pryor warned that the team needed to find a way to price the product at $425 to stay competitive and regain some market share.After two unsuccessful meetings and much heated discussion involving representatives from sales, production, design and other members of senior leadership, a decision could not be reached on the price and Emma was left with making a â€Å"go/no-go† decision about the Aerial GPS unit. Problem Defi nition Emma Richardson has inadvertently formed an inefficient cross-functional, problem-solving team tasked with making a decision on the price of TerraCog’s new Aerial GPS unit. Slow progress on making a group decision and disagreement over the proposed price point for the product may derail or even stop the launch of the product.Relevant Theories and Models Group decision making is widely used in organizations today. There are strengths and weaknesses to using this method and it often has advantages over decisions made by individuals. Groups generate more complete knowledge and information, and they offer increased diversity of views; both allowing groups to evaluate more alternatives and consider more input. Group decisions also foster acceptance of a solution due to increased support of the final decision by the group members. Despite these strengths, group decision making is also plagued with some weaknesses.Slowed decision making is one major weakness of group decision making. Reaching a decision within a work group is usually time-consuming since all parties may not agree on the proposed final decision. Group conformity and ambiguous responsibility also hinder group decision making. A desire for members to be accepted can result in squashing of any overt disagreement, and unclear lines of responsibility lead to little or no individual accountability. In addition to these weaknesses, group decision making also has negative effects on efficiency since it involves more work hours and resources than decisions made by individuals.Situation Analysis In the case of Project Aerial, it is clear that the group is slow to make a decision on the price of the product. Although there are varying degrees of input and information supplied by the group members, the decision making process is going too slow and a lot of time is spent meeting to discuss the available options. In addition, it doesn’t appear to be clear who is responsible for making the decision on th e price. Ed Pryor, from Sales, seems to be driving and dominating the option for more reduced costs.He is adamant about not trying to sell the product if the costs and price are not lowered. On the other hand, Tony Barren, from Production, the CFO, and Allen Roth from Design, all seems to agree that costs are as low as they are going to get. Emma is attempting to facilitate a type of brainstorming technique but it is failing because there is a lot of criticism. This is also affecting the efficiency of the group because it is blocking the thought process of the members and they cannot come up with creative ideas on how to solve the price problem and reach a consensus.Taking a step back, it helps to analyze the status and norms of groups to help understand how these form the foundation for group interaction and group decision making. Status and group norm are two group properties that are important in understanding employee behavior in groups. Status has been shown to have some interesting effects on the power of norms and pressures to conform. High status people tend to be more assertive; they criticize more, and interrupt others in discussion, inhibiting creativity in ideas. We see this occurring quite a lot in the meetings Emma called to discuss the price of Aerial.Allen Roth and Ed Pryor both interrupt other team members while they were speaking, and most of the team members, given their status in the organization, are all very vocal in the discussions. This sets the tone and norm for this particular work group. Although the cross-functional team structure it has was probably intended to foster diversity of ideas, the status and embedded norm is causing some inefficiency in decision making and problem solving. In addition to the points already analyzed, Emma’s problem-solving team is also plagued with a few properties of an ineffective team. There are four key components of effective teams – contextual influences, composition, work design, and process. Looking at contextual influences, we see that the group is somewhat lacking in leadership and structure of the team, as well as trust. As mentioned before, it’s not quite clear who is responsible for making the final decision, and what specific input and contribution is needed from each member. To add to this, there is a slight lack of trust on the part of Tony Barren given past quality problems in production.The other team members have placed increased pressure on him, making him less likely to take risks. This team is also lacking in the area of team composition. Let’s focus on two properties of team composition – personality and size. In analyzing personality in groups and teams, the Big Five personality model has been shown to be relevant to team effectiveness. Three of the five traits are especially important for team performance – conscientiousness, openness, and agreeableness. Focusing on openness and agreeableness, we see that the group in this case is lacking in these areas.As already mentioned, none of the members, especially Ed Pryor is open to ideas of a higher price, and none of the members are very agreeable, possible due again, to their status in the organization. The theory and studies of these traits suggest that teams did worse when they had one or more highly disagreeable member. Evaluating the size of the team also provides us with some insight to why they are so slow to reach a decision. Experts suggest that managers should use the smallest number of people who can do the task. A minimum of four or five members is sufficient for driving diversity in ideas and solutions; however, the group in this case includes seven members. It was a mistake on Emma’s part when she included the CFO and the VP of Design in the second pre-launch meeting. When teams have excess members, mutual accountability declines, and they have trouble coordinating. In addition, some members do less talking than others and don’t contribute. We see an example of this with Alice Gorga and Emma Richardson, who barely contributed to the discussions on setting the price. Strategy FormulationEmma Richardson has a couple of ways she can get her team back on track and focused on reaching a solution on the price of Aerial. Emma needs to finds the best way to reach this decision without creating more tension between the group members. Strategic Alternatives and Alternative evaluation The first option for Emma is to seek the input from the group members individually and then use the information gathered to make the final decision on her own. Using this method will speed up the decision making process. It also clearly identifies that Emma is responsible and accountable for the decision since it will be an individual decision.However, should the product fail, Emma will be the sole person to blame and will receive a lot of backlash from the group members and others in the organization. This will add to tensions and loss of trust in the organization. ? A second option for Emma is to use the nominal group technique of group decision making. She should facilitate a meeting such that there is no criticism of ideas. Allow each member to individually come up with ideas on the price before the meeting and have them state their ideas at the meeting. The group will then evaluate the pros and cons of each idea so they can make a better informed decision.This method allows the group to still meet, but it does not restrict individual thinking. In addition, since the final decision will be a group decision, it will be more widely accepted and supported. The disadvantage of this option is that some group members may be too entrenched in their original idea and may not be able to contribute to coming up with other alternatives. In addition, more time and resources will be used by having another meeting. The third and final alternative for Emma is for her to use the information she already has and make a final decision herself. Unfortunately, this decision will likely be a â€Å"no-go† decision. The sales team has already stated they will not sell the product if it is priced above the $425 threshold. This option does not address any of the group dynamics issues that Emma has to resolve. However, it does allow for a quick decision and the team members can return to their every day jobs without further tying up these resources. Alternative choice/Solution The best option for Emma is to use the nominal group technique to reach a decision on the price of Aerial.Since the group has already met twice, Emma will have to take control of the situation and provide a lot more focus for the group. As stated before, holding this third meeting will keep the members from working on other projects, and they may present some opposition, but Emma needs to show leadership over the situation and facilitate a more productive meeting. Before calling the third meeting, Emma should task each original member of the team, excluding the CFO and Harold Whistler, with coming up with 3 different ideas on how to solve the problem of the price.At the meeting, each member is allowed to state their ideas, without criticism, and then the group will evaluate each idea and make a decision. The group may decide at the end of the day not to introduce Aerial and focus on other company products that are more viable, but at least they would have all contributed their best ideas into reaching the final decision. The tension within the group will be reduced and trust reinstated. Finally, Emma would have also partially succeeded in her own goals of fostering more cross-functional involvement within the organization