Arsenals of Folly: Post-War Superpower Nuclear Arms Race History

The Pulitzer Prize-winning account covers the post-World War II nuclear arms race, climaxing in the Reagan-Gorbachev decade of the 1980s. Authored by Richard Rhodes, it draws on personal interviews with U.S. and Soviet participants and documentation that became available in the past ten years. The narrative details the arms build-up, the 1986 Reykjavik summit, and near-agreements to abolish nuclear weapons.

Use Cases

• Analyzing narrative accounts of Cold War diplomacy based on the described historical events.
• Studying the evolution of nuclear arms policy based on the described Reagan-era build-up and reduction campaigns.
• Examining primary source integration based on the use of interviews and newly available documentation mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• Authored by a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Richard Rhodes.
• Draws on personal interviews with participants from both the U.S. and Soviet sides.
• Incorporates documentation that became available only in the past ten years.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file format are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Richard Rhodes

Collection Method

Likely compiled from historical research, personal interviews, and archival documentation.

Time Range

Post-World War II era, focusing on the 1980s.

Geography

Primarily United States and Soviet Union relations.