Fascinating overview of the Cold War, with the book's central thesis/focus being that internal domestic political pressure was a lot more important at every stage of the conflict than people typically give credit for—especially the internal domestic politics of the United States. It constrained the perceived options of each president, and even attempts to ignore it or escape it often ended up blunted by the domestic backlash. In the end it took a countervailing set of domestic pressures—generated within the Soviet Union to escape the death spiral of military spending and their economy—to generate a dynamic, motivated leadership that could push to end the stalemate.

Beyond the thesis, it also offers a pretty good overview of the conflict as a whole, necessary to explicate what it's getting at. Well-written and very recommended, even and perhaps especially for someone not really read about the Cold War.