this book, while not involved with alot of individual detail, is a great summary of important events throughout the cold war. i personally use it all of the time for quick referencing. i recommend it to anyone interested in the cold war.
From Amazon.com
it's hard to cover eighty years in 300 pages
I had to read this book as part of my history graduate studies. While Powaski has a notable orthodox lean to the Cold War spin, towards the end, he notes "post-revisionistly" that both Russia and U.S. have to take blame. Not an easy read and with little if any original research (no Russian primary sources), but quite informative as a narrative of Cold War history...would have liked more information on the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5, which sort of started all the ill feelings in the first place.