America After the Cold War

The First Thirty Years

By: Patrick N. Allitt, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Patrick N. Allitt

History is filled with surprises, not the least of which, was the very idea of America. Who would have ever imagined that a scruffy backwater of states could defeat one of the world’s great empires, forge an identity, and become a global superpower? Most surveys of American history show you the stunning rise of America and take you through the Cold War, a story that includes the tumultuous conflict in Vietnam and the cultural upheaval of the 1960s.

The 30 years of contemporary history following the fall of the Soviet Union, however, tend to get short shrift, perhaps because this period of history is still being written, or perhaps because the end of the Cold War is a natural stopping point, an inflection point when one story ends and something new - something unpredictable - begins. Nonetheless, events of today have been profoundly shaped by the past several decades, and one must understand this recent history to understand the world today.

Contemporary life is changing so rapidly that it can be breathtaking to take a step back and look at the cohesive “story” from 1990 to 2019, but this is precisely what America After the Cold War: The First Thirty Years offers. Taught by esteemed professor and Great Courses favorite Dr. Patrick Allitt of Emory University, these 12 fascinating lectures tie all the threads of contemporary life together to give you a rich understanding of the world we live in now.

America has always been something of a paradox - a colony turned superpower, a productivity dynamo with a widening gulf between rich and poor, and a land of the free that has abetted inequality and racial injustice. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, it seemed the US was poised for a new era of growth, equality, and peace, yet history is messy. The story of the United States is ongoing, but by synthesizing events and illuminating them within a context, Professor Allitt offers a fascinating exploration of contemporary America.

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A great course but with one major issue

So Patrick is a fantastic narrator, and this audiobook is well researched and short, but it's incredibly Americentric. Still, for the length and price one can't beat the overall excellence of this work.

Overview of US events from Reagan to Trump

I found the lecture to be a good refresher. If someone was in a coma for twenty years since 2001 I would
give them this to listen to. If I was a student in the year 2080 and if I was studying the period between 1990-2020 I personally
would consider the lecture to be a decent secondary source to get started.

I will say the 2nd to the last lecture on pop culture was weak, and the professor has overtly made that clear with his tone, But given the multitude of subcultures and avenues of consumption since the internet/communication revolution, it is kind of expected.

The lecture is worth a listen, but granted please ignore the buzzwords on some of the reviews, Unlike historial subjects such as the roman empire, you still have active players being mentioned in the lecture trying to influence US culture and policy. YMMV.

Solid, good to see the story all in one place

I lived through all this, and there was nothing here I hadn't seen or thought along the way. But, those with a bent toward history can get the whole period (USA-centric) in a neat package. It is basically the headline stories of those 30 years, from the most basic, popular shared view of events, without a lot of frill.

Wrote and submitted review...

Not going to write another one. This is the 4th or fifth time this has happened now. Fix the bug!

90 percent leftist view

too much general BS and liberal values. I wish it was pure facts and logic from both sides of the story