The publication of Wilson D. Miscamble's latest book, From Roosevelt to Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima, and the Cold War (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), has sparked divergent reactions. Many leading historians have offered high praise for the book, describing it as “the definitive work on the complicated transition from [Franklin] Roosevelt to [Harry] Truman.” Other scholars, however, have faulted Miscamble for being too harsh on Roosevelt and too sympathetic toward Truman. This forum, with commentaries by two prominent scholars, offers contrasting perspectives on the book.

Gary Bruce's volume in the Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series, Resistance with the People: Repression and Resistance in Eastern Germany, 1945–1955 , provides an overview of the East German state security apparatus (Stasi) from the mid-1940s, when secret police organs were set up in eastern Germany by the Soviet occupation forces, through the mid-1950s, when the size of the Stasi sharply increased, allowing it to become a massive surveillance and repressive apparatus. Bruce examines the origins of the Stasi, the role of the state security organs in the outbreak and suppression of the East German uprising of June 1953, and the subsequent evolution of the Stasi under Walter Ulbricht, who removed his rivals from the state security apparatus and then reestablished it as a separate ministry responsible for “combatting all internal and external enemies” of the Communist regime. Two prominent experts on East German history offer their perspectives on Bruce's book and the role of popular resistance under Communist rule.