The book by American historian John Lamberton Harper tells the story of the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, two messianic states and their respective alliances. It is the story of the Cold War, a competition of imperial dimensions and potentially eschatological, as the danger of nuclear annihilation loomed. For Harper, the Cold War can be understood by recalling the conflict between Athens and Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, the conflict between Napoleon's France and its enemies, as well as the conflict between Nazi Germany and Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States in World War II. This time the prize was global supremacy. The opponents were competing political, social, and economic systems that clashed for control of vital areas.

The author narrates the history of the Cold War with clarity, transparency, rigorous argumentation, captivating storytelling, and an interpretive approach that balances imaginativeness and evidentiary material, explanatory diagrams and reality, unforeseen contingencies and non-predefined choices. The result is a readable and at the same time profound and comprehensive book, with a particularly careful and penetrating look at subtle nuances and imperceptible differences, at the faces and emotions of the people involved, on paths that were followed and paths that remained unexplored.