the Cold War
A rebellious childhood: Lowest Common Denominator, by Pirkko Saisio, reviewed
In droll, sardonic, dialogue-driven scenes, Saisio transports us to her youth in Cold War Finland and her longing to become a writer
The mixed legacy of Zbigniew Brzezinski, strategist of the Cold War
Successful initiatives during the Carter presidency regarding the USSR, China and Afghanistan were counterbalanced by a serious misreading of the situation in Iran
How the US military became world experts on the environment
In its bid to become a global superpower, the US vastly increased its number of overseas bases in the 1960s, giving it unparalleled knowledge of Earth’s most extreme habitats
A war of words: circulating forbidden literature behind the Iron Curtain
For decades, the CIA smuggled works by George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, Czeslaw Milosz and many others into the Soviet bloc in a battle for hearts, minds and intellects
Inside the Unholy See: the infiltration of the Vatican by foreign powers
Yvonnick Denoël reveals how, since the mid-20th century, a scandalous number of priests have acted as communist moles
When will Ronald Reagan get the recognition he deserves?
Max Boot’s contention that Reagan was a lightweight pragmatist who played little part in reviving America or winning the Cold War is absurdly revisionist
You didn’t mess with them – the doughty matriarchs of the intelligence world
Claire Hubbard-Hall pays tribute to the legions of women who devoted their lives to the British secret service but whose efforts went largely unacknowledged
Is now the most exciting point in human history?
Since today’s computers can process information beyond human capabilities, we are on a precipice never faced before, says Yuval Noah Harari, in another sweeping narrative
Nothing was off-limits for ‘the usual gang of idiots’ at Mad
First published in 1952, the satirical magazine helped free the American youth of Vietnam War era of some of the stupidest beliefs they were supposed to hold about their country
Cold War spying had much in common with the colonial era
Influenced by Kipling’s Kim, early CIA officers combined a love of overseas adventure with a whiff of imperial paranoia, says Hugh Wilford
The thrill of the chase
The novelist himself admitted that his infidelities ‘produced a duality and tension that became a necessary drug for my writing’
Constantly frit
Catherine Taylor describes her anxiety growing up in Sheffield against an ‘uneasy backdrop’ of picketing miners, the Hillsborough disaster and a serial killer on the loose
The secret sharers
In February 1941 four US officers were landed from a British warship at Sheerness, bundled into vehicles and driven to…
No blame, no shame
If MI5 had a Cold War file on you – paper in those happy days – it didn’t mean they…
A phoenix from the ashes
‘Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.’ Albert Einstein’s deft avoidance of the question put to…
The changing face of war
The strategic bankruptcy of the West has twice so far this century demanded that our brave soldiers risk their bodies…
The rebirth of a nation
Lord Macaulay wrote that ‘during the century and a half which followed the Conquest there is, to speak strictly, no…
Ian Kershaw recounts Europe’s recovery from WWII – have the good times run their course?
When I reviewed the first volume of Sir Ian Kershaw’s wrist-breaking history of the last 100 years of Europe, To…
His dark materials
In this giant, prodigiously sourced and insightful biography, John A. Farrell shows how Richard Milhous Nixon was the nightmare of…
A blast from the past
If you had to choose one book that both typified spy fiction and celebrated what the genre was capable of…
Wishful thinking
Deirdre McCloskey has been at work for many years on a huge project: to explain why the world has become…
A choice of crime novels
It’s often the case that present-day crimes have their roots in the past. Ian Rankin’s Even Dogs in the Wild…
The four men who averted the Apocalypse
Robert Service’s account of the greatest turning point in modern history is unlikely to be bettered, says Sherard Cowper-Coles
Everything you always wanted to know about Sixties pop —and more
It might seem an odd choice, but after reading Jon Savage’s new book, I think if I had a time…
King of Kings: The Triumph and Tragedy of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia
Great men rarely come smaller than Haile Selassie. In photographs, the golden crowns, pith helmets and grey felt homburgs he…
