The Cold War: How the Winner Won

Books reviewed in this article:
Scott Lucas,. Freedom's War: The American Crusade Against the Soviet Union
Gregory Mitrovich, Undermining the Kremlin: America's Strategy to Subvert the Soviet Bloc, 1947–1956
Arch Puddington, Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Libelrty     

An Appeal from the New to the Old Historicists

Book reviewed in this article:
Jürgen Pieters, Moments Of Negotiation: The New Historicism Of Stephen Greenblatt     

Regionalism in Central Asia: New Geopolitics, Old Regional Order

Behind the rhetoric of regional cooperation, the Central Asian states have been embroiled with increasing frequency in conflicts among themselves, including trade wars, border disputes and disagreements over the management and use of water and energy resources. Far from engendering a new regional order in Central Asia, the events of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent basing of US troops in the region have served to entrench pre-existing patterns of regional cooperation, while highlighting the obstacles that have beset the regionalization process there since the mid-1990s. While all five Central Asian states have been attempting to use the renewed rivalry between Russia and the United States, which is being played out in the Central Asian region, to maximize their strategic and economic benefits, the formation of the United States–Uzbekistan strategic partnership has increased the resolve of the other Central Asian states (Turkmenistan excepted) to balance Uzbekistan's preponderance by enthusiastically pursuing regional projects involving Russia and, to a lesser extent, China. This regional dynamic has resulted in the steady gravitation of the centre of regionalism in Central Asia to the north from a nominal Tashkent–Astana axis to a more stable Astana–Moscow one, with possible repercussions for the poorer states of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The article examines the major constraints on regionalism in Central Asia, considering in particular the ways in which the personalist, non-democratic regimes of Central Asia have obstructed state–centric 'top–down' regionalism as well as informal regionalist processes 'from below'.     

The Skeleton from the Gokstad Ship: New Evaluation of an Old Find

Concern whether the skeletal remains from the Gokstad ship could be destroyed in the moist leaden coffin, re-buried in 1928 after the excavation in 1880, resulted in a re-opening of the mound in 2007. The anthropological examination produced evidence of a male person in his 40s, about 181 cm tall and of extreme physical constitution. Pathological changes in his left knee revealed an older injury with fracture of the medial tibial condyle and arthrosis of the joint. Several marks of peri-mortal blows from slashing weapons showed that the man had been killed, probably in battle. A flattening of the hypophyseal fossa (sella turcica) in the skull base made it possible that ‘the Gokstad chieftain’ may have suffered from a hypophyseal tumour, leading to acromegaly, a pathological condition in accordance with the extreme appearance of his skeleton.     

Review Article: Hot War,Cold War,New War

STANLEY KARNOW. Vietnam, A History. New York: Penguin, 1984. Pp. xi, 752. $10.95 (US); GABRIEL KOLKO. Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, The United States, and the Modern Historical Experience. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985. Pp. xvi, 628. $25.00 (US); TIMOTHY J. LOMPERIS. The War Everyone Lost-and Won: America's Intervention in Vietnam's Twin Struggles. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1985. Pp. x, 192. $22.50 (US); R.B. SMITH. An International History of the Vietnam War: The Kennedy Strategy. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985. Pp. xii, 429. $25.00 (US); HARRY O. SUMMERS, Jr. On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War. New York: Dell, 1984. Pp. 288. $3.95 (US).     

Culture,Information, and Inheritance: New Perspectives on Old Questions

Two books under review investigate the relationship between biological and cultural transmission of information. This perspective offers a promising basis for a definition of culture with broad applicability in contemporary anthropology. Lamb and Jablonka stress the complexity of biological transmission and the importance of behavioral and symbolic variation to evolutionary biology. Richerson and Boyd present a rigorous model-based approach to the analysis of cultural transmission. The approach reduces cultural phenomena to simple models for methodological purposes. Modeling cultural transmission has value for anthropology but cannot replace approaches drawn from social theory and from detailed contextual studies.