A provocative analysis of the deadly conflicts that devastated countries and communities far from Moscow and Washington.

Transforming battlegrounds in Africa, Asia, and Latin America into veritable wastelands, surrogate wars in the Cold War era left behind a legacy of collective trauma and social conflict that have persisted into the present. In this ambitious work, Alfred W. McCoy uses a bottom-up, outside-in approach to offer a new perspective on the longest, most consequential conflict in modern world history.

McCoy offers an intimate portrait of covert operatives and young antiwar protesters, humanizing the history of the Cold War—a history that has too often been told in terms of economic growth, nuclear arsenals, or diplomatic ententes.

By showing how otherwise ordinary individuals helped end a global conflict that threatened nuclear holocaust, McCoy offers important lessons for a younger generation facing climate change even as the great powers devote humanity's scarce resources to a "new cold war."