Meeting at Potsdam, by Charles L. Mee Jr.

POP ART HISTORY

In a review article on cold war revisionists for the American Historical Review, Rutgers Professor Warren F. Kimball wrote that, generally, “Cold war historiography has followed a pattern…. First come the ‘white paper’ style histories, often written during a particular crisis and reflecting the view of government policy-makers. Close on [their] heels come the initial attempts at revision often characterized by visions of conspiracy. At this point defenses of official policy appear. Based on greater amounts of documentary evidence they often accept a few of the revisionist arguments while rejecting the revisionist’s overall conclusions. These scholarly defenses bring on scholarly revisionism … finally time results in an eclectic