| By approaching the "Cold War" as an historical artifact, this paper begins from the premise that historical actors adopted the phrase "Cold War" because it helped them comprehend the world in which they lived. Only by approaching "Cold War" as an historical artifact can "Cold War" historians fully understand the complex nature of the concept at the heart of their field. The "Cold War" concept emerged in the United States during 1947 as journalists and other public figures began using the phrase to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. Using the metaphor of a "constellation," the paper analyzes the "Cold War" artifact in terms of the interactions between the "stars," or historical actors, who either first used the phrase or significantly influenced its earliest usages. These "stars" include George Orwell, Herbert Bayard Swope, Bernard M. Baruch, George F. Kennan, and Walter Lippmann. |
