The Cold War and Postmodern Memory

Robert Conquest. Reflections on a Ravaged Century. (2000) Norton.



This year could be the great anniversary: 150 years since the firing on Fort Sumter, seventy years since Pearl Harbor, twenty years since Gulf War I. Two other anniversaries should be noted, those being the fiftieth of John Kennedy's inauguration and the thirtieth of Ronald Reagan's, whose centennial is also this year. I write this because, as a teacher of history, it is time we recognize that a generation has grown up without any memory of the Cold War. Many of the ideas and attitudes that the Boomer generation were born into and grew up with are no longer standard. The way the Cold War enveloped our lives is foreign to the Ipod generation. In order for the younger generation to understand us we need to realize this. We need to attempt to explain the Cold War and not just take it as given that they understand. We need to explain it in the way our parents explained the Depression and World War II.

Reflections on a Ravaged Century is a good starting point in restoring some of the memories of the Cold War era. Conquest examines some of the rogue ideologies of the twentieth century that sent millions to their deaths and terrorized the rest. "More generally, this book is an overview, an attempt to present in a reasonably coherent way the crucial causes of past disaster, and so of the problems still facing us in our hopes for a reasonably peaceful and consensual world." (297)