"Throughout the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union strategized to prop up friendly dictatorships abroad. Today, it is commonly assumed that the two superpowers' military aid enabled the survival of allied autocrats, from Taiwan's Chiang Kai-shek to Ethiopia's Mengistu Haile Mariam. In Up in Arms, political scientist Adam E. Casey rebuts the received wisdom: Cold War-era aid to autocracies often backfired. Casey draws on extensive original...

"A cutting-edge look into a pivotal moment in U.S. history: McCarthy's infamous "witch hunt" for communists during the 1950's Red Scare. At the cusp of the Cold War, Americans were so afraid of communists living among them that they began to hunt them like witches. As Senator Joe McCarthy took up this mantle to hunt down "communists" in the U.S., citizens grew terrified of being accused, so they turned on each other--pointing fingers at neighbors,...