Introduction, Joel Isaac and Duncan Bell ; Part I: Prisms ; 1. Cold War Degree Zero, Anders Stephanson ; 2. Exploring the Histories of the Cold War: A Pluralist Approach, Odd Arne Westad ; 3. A History Best Served Cold, Philip Mirowski ; 4. Inventing Other Realities: What the Cold War Means for Literary Studies, Steven Belletto ; Part II: Vistas ; 5. The Geopolitical Vision: The Myth of an Outmatched U.S.A., John Thompson ; 6. War Envy and Amnesia: American Cold War Rewrites of Russia's War, Ann Douglas ; 7. The Spirit of Democracy: Religious Liberty and American Anti-Communism during the Cold War, Andrew Preston ; 8. God, the Bomb, and the Cold War: The Religious and Ethical Debate Over Nuclear Weapons, 1945-1960, Paul S. Boyer ; 9. Blues Under Siege: Ralph Ellison, Albert Murray, and the Idea of America, Daniel Matlin ; 10. Cold War Culture and the Lingering Myth of Sacco and Vanzetti, Moshik Temkin ; 11. Deconstructing "Cold War Anthropology", Peter Mandler ; 12. Cognitive and Perceptual Training in the Cold War Man-Machine System, Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi ; Index

"A model for an edited volume. Joel Isaac and Duncan Bell, the volume's editors, aim not to criticize existing Cold War scholarship, but rather to open new avenues of inquiry and perhaps reinvigorate what is already a very large and rich field. That is because, while there is no shortage of writing on the topic, there is a surprising lack of attention to its meaning."--Gretchen Heefner, Reviews in American History "Uncertain Empire is that rarity: a collection of essays that works as seamlessly and to as great effect as a single-authored work. From its comprehensive introduction through the incisive analyses by some of the most interesting historians of the Cold War, Isaac and Bell have assembled a rich and multi-faceted exploration of their subject. In their hands, the Cold War becomes a lens through which to examine American history itself."--Marilyn Young, New York University "These are stimulating think pieces from a multidisciplinary perspective."--CHOICE "Thought-provoking. An impressively wide-ranging and exceptionally coherent collection that simultaneously clarifies, problematizes, and advances our understanding of the United States and the Cold War."--Hugh Wilford, Journal of American History "This edited collection has no small ambition: to encourage a reconceptualization of the Cold War in American history. The coeditors have achieved great success in encouraging authors to contend with the book's 'metahistorical themes'. Uncertain Empire demonstrates the vitality of historical scholarship on the Cold War in American life while at the same time identifying new themes and new approaches to an important topic. It will serve as an ideal introduction for graduate students interested in the state of the field, and to scholars continuing to rethink the American experience of its decades-long conflict with the Soviet Union."--David Engerman, American Historical Review

Joel Isaac is Lecturer in the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Christ's College, and the author of Working Knowledge: Making the Human Sciences from Parsons to Kuhn. Duncan Bell is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Christ's College, and the author of The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860-1900.