Painter's 1999 history of the Cold War was described as "excellent",[12] a book that "presents a very good analysis of the end of the Cold War, emphasizing the economic weakness of the Soviet Union and the strains of the arms race upon the Soviet economy."[13]
Selected publications
Charles Kraus (Moderator), Michael F. Hopkins (Author) and David S. Painter (Respondent), Book Launch, Dean Acheson and the Obligations of Power, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C., 19 June 2017
Books and case studies
Origins of the Cold War: An International History (2nded.). New York & London: Routledge. 2005. ISBN978-0-415-34109-7. (Co-editor with Melvyn P. Leffler).
The Cold War: An International History. London: Routledge. 1999. ISBN978-0-415-19446-4.
Oil and the American Century: The Political Economy of US Foreign Oil Policy, 1941–1954. Baltimore,MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1986. ISBN978-0-801-82693-1.Published in the UK as Private Power and Public Policy: Multinational Oil Corporations and United States Foreign Policy, 1941–54. London: I.B.Tauris. 1987. ISBN978-1-850-43021-6.
"Oil, resources, and the Cold War, 1945–62". In Melvyn P. Leffler & Odd Arne Westad, eds., The Cambridge History of the Cold War, Volume I: Origins (pp.486–507). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010. ISBN978-0-521-83719-4.
Boyle, Peter G. (2000). 「書評:冷戦再考」. Journal of Contemporary History . 35 (3): 479–489 . doi : 10.1177/002200940003500309 . JSTOR 261032. S2CID 162237192 .
DeNovo, John A. (1987). 「書評:David S. Painter著『石油とアメリカの世紀』」。Middle East Journal 41 (2): 314–315。JSTOR 4327573。