Remaking the World: Decolonization and the Cold War

Jessica M. Chapman

Dec 2023 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Suzie Althens

About this audiobook

Remaking the World examines the connections between the Cold War and decolonization, which helped define the post-World War II global order. Drawing on new scholarship, this comprehensive study provides a chronological overview from World War I to the Soviet collapse and highlights key developments in the international system as decolonization unfolded in tandem with the Cold War. Through six carefully selected case studies-India, Egypt, the Congo, Vietnam, Angola, and Iran-historian Jessica M. Chapman addresses the shifting of Soviet, American, Chinese, and Cuban policies, the centrality of modernization, the role of the United Nations, the often-outsized influence of regional actors like Israel and South Africa, and seminal post-Vietnam War shifts in the international system. Each of the case studies analyzes at least one geopolitical turning point, demonstrating that the Cold War and decolonization were mutually constitutive processes in which local, national, and regional developments altered the superpower competition. Chapman describes a picture of the complexities of international relations and the ways in which local communist and democratic movements differed from their Soviet and American counterparts, including their visions for independence and success.

About the author

Jessica M. Chapman is professor of history at Williams College, where she teaches courses related to United States foreign relations, decolonization and the Cold War, the Vietnam War, sport and diplomacy, and Cold War studies. She is the author of Cauldron of Resistance.

Suzie Althens records from her professional studio in Alaska, near the beautiful Matanuska Glacier. She narrates regularly for major publishers and specializes in audiobooks and e-learning.