One of the ironies of modern history is that the “Cold War” was much hotter than the 24-hour-news-covered conflicts since that time. Millions of people died in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan and the many smaller clashes of the East-West stare down.

A new book about the Cold War is welcome if for no other reason than to put history in perspective history since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. This single volume’s 85 interesting entries tell about a time when many world leaders rejected capitalism, and the possibility of nuclear war destroying civilization seemed much more likely than it does today. The Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin Airlift, the nuclear arms race, Josef Stalin, and other important subjects are included.

The guide suffers somewhat, however, in having so few entries, although it should be noted that the title does include the word “Essential.” Among the subjects not directly addressed are Iran, Nicaragua, Chile, Vo Nguyen Giap, Douglas McArthur, and Pope John Paul II. The index does help readers find references to many subjects that do not have their own entries. One of those is the Soviet Union itself, which has many indexed references, but none of them point to the decisive events of 1989-1991.

Besides the alphabetically organized entries about key individuals and events, there are 17 primary source documents and several essays, including one about whether Ronald Reagan brought the Cold War to its peaceful ending. A bibliography and a chronology are included, the latter of which does provide a terse review of those final years.

By comparison, the five-volume Encyclopedia of the Cold War: A Political, Social, and Military History (ABC-CLIO, 2008), edited by Spencer C. Tucker, has roughly 1,300 entries, scores of maps and 171 primary documents. Another work with which librarians may be familiar is The Cold War, 1945–1991: Leaders and Other Important Figures (Gale Research, 1992), edited by Benjamin Frankel. It focuses mainly on biographies but also has an extensive Cold War chronology. Having been published right after the Cold War ended, it no longer has the advantage of historical perspective.

Libraries that already own the Tucker encyclopedia probably do not need the Arnold and Wiener guide, but libraries that do not own Tucker and have tight space and tight budgets should find the new book useful. It’s also worth having to update the Frankel work.