Mark Kramer is director of Cold War Studies at Harvard University's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, where he is also a Senior Fellow.
Vit Smetana is a senior research fellow at the Institute for Contemporary History of the Czech Republic's Academy of Sciences and teaches modern international history at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague.

Imposing, Maintaining, and Tearing Open the Iron Curtain, edited by Mark Kramer and Vít Smetana, consists of cutting-edge essays by distinguished experts who discuss the Cold War in Europe from beginning to end, with a particular focus on the countries that were behind the iron curtain.

Introduction
By Mark Kramer and Vít Smetana
Part 1. Central Europe and the Onset of the Iron Curtain
Chapter 1. Stalin, Soviet Policy, and the Establishment of a Communist Bloc in Eastern Europe, 1941-1949
By Mark Kramer
Chapter 2. The United States and Eastern Europe, 1943-1948
By Michael F. Hopkins
Chapter 3. Concessions or Conviction? Czechoslovakia's Road to the Cold War and the Soviet Bloc
By Vít Smetana
Chapter 4. Hungary's Role in the Soviet Bloc, 1945-1956
By László Borhi
Chapter 5. Stalin, the Split with Yugoslavia, and Soviet-East European Efforts to Reassert Control, 1948-1953
By Mark Kramer
Chapter 6. Austria, Germany, and the Cold War, 1945-1955
By Rolf Steininger
Chapter 7. Neutrality for Germany or Stabilizing the Eastern Bloc? New Evidence on the Decision-Making Process of the Stalin Note
By Peter Ruggenthaler
Part 2. The German Question and Intra-Bloc Politics in the Post-Stalin Era
Chapter 8. The Berlin Wall: Looking Back on the History of the Wall Twenty Years after Its Fall
By Hope M. Harrison
Chapter 9. The German Problem and Security in Europe: Hindrance or Catalyst on the Path to 1989-1990?
By Oliver Bange
Chapter 10. Germany and East-Central Europe, 1945-1990: The View from London
By Anne Deighton
Chapter 11. The German Question as Seen from Paris
By Georges-Henri Soutou
Chapter 12. Cold War, Détente and the Soviet Bloc: The Evolution of Intra-bloc Foreign Policy Coordination, 1953-1975
By Csaba Békés
Part 3. The Role of East-Central Europe in Ending the Cold War
Chapter 13. Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and the Revolutions of 1989: U.S. Myths versus the Primary Sources
By Thomas Blanton
Chapter 14. Moscow and Eastern Europe 1988-1989: A Policy of Optimism and Caution
By Alex Pravda
Chapter 15. The Opening of the Wall, Eastern Europe, and Gorbachev's Vision of Europe after the Cold War
By Svetlana Savranskaya
Chapter 16. Pulling the Rug: East-Central Europe and the Implosion of East Germany
By Bernd Schaefer
Chapter 17. The Demise of the Soviet Bloc
By Mark Kramer
Part 4. Long-Term Perspectives on the Cold War and Its End
Chapter 18. Nuclear Weapons and the Cold War in Europe
By David Holloway
Chapter 19. Why Did the Cold War Last So Long?
By Mark Kramer
Chapter 20. The End of the Cold War as a Non-Linear Confluence
By Richard Ned Lebow
Chapter 21. Conspicuous Connections: 1968 and 1989
By Oldrich Tuma
Chapter 22. 1989 in Historical Perspectives: The Problem of Legitimation
By Silvio Pons
Chapter 23. The End of the Cold War and the Transformation of Cold War History: A Tale of Two Conferences, 1988-1989
By James G. Hershberg