The Cold War and European Revisionism

This essay is not an exhaustive examination of one or more seminal studies. I want to use this space to ruminate about the meanings of revisionism in the historiography of U.S. foreign relations and then to apply them to the work of some European historians writing in the 1980s about the Cold War. This essay will be a tour d'horizon of sorts, based for the most part on my limited encounters with European scholars at meetings in Western European centers over the past six years.1 From these experiences I can suggest, if only tentatively, that a species of revisionism is flourishing in Europe today. Compared with other manifestations of revisionism, Europe's of the 1980s is difficult to define; it does not conform to established patterns. Equally difficult for me is the assigning of views to scholars based on passing comments or oral presentations that might not reflect a fully considered position in print. Snatches of statements taken out of context are not the most promising source material for a review essay.