Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown

Sheinkin, Steve. Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown. 2021. 342p. ISBN 9781250149015. Available at 972.91 SHE on the library shelves.

During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union were reluctant allies against the Nazi enemy. With competing ideas about society's organization and economic systems, the two victors of the Second World War soon emerge as superpowers, with enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world over. The search for the next even more powerful weapon became a race for everything as both superpowers competed with each other for influence and domination. Spies and spying became the currency of what quickly grew as the Cold War.

Soviet spies sought to acquire technical expertise and infiltrate weapons development programs. American spies sought to penetrate the Soviet government and acquire weapons blueprints and capabilities. American Spy planes flew above the Soviet Union, examining weapon depots, military bases, and nuclear sites. But then the United States was shocked when the Soviets put the first satellite into space atop a rocket that could carry a nuclear warhead anywhere in the world. The United States was behind!

With John F. Kennedy's election, the nation now had a young and untested leader at the helm. Soviet leadership, experienced and having lived through the Second World War, sought to continue the spread of Communism around the world. As more warheads are built and deployed, strategic competition is becoming a deadly game where one wrong move will cause nuclear armageddon. 

The Cold War in general, and particularly tense moments such as the Bay of Pig invasion, the U2 plane shot down over the Soviet Union, and the Cuban Missile crisis, marked the collective imagination and continues to influence the course of events today. Fans of history will enjoy the drama behind this real-life spy and geopolitical thriller!

A Time of Fear: America in the Era of Red Scares and Cold War

Marrin, Albert. A Time of Fear: America in the Era of Red Scares and Cold War. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9780525644293.

When the Bolsheviks seized power during the Russian revolution in 1917, they suddenly found themselves in charge of a backwards country mired in the bloody First World War. Motivated by an ideology that was meant to implement a worker's paradise at the cost of individual freedoms, Lenin and his men instituted Communism in what became the Soviet Union, and pressed for worldwide expansion. Communist parties spread throughout the world, following Moscow's dictating lines and seeking to undermine their own societies for the benefit of a foreign power.

In the United States, the Communist Party of the United States of America was organized to support workers' right in the industrial struggles of the 1910s and 1920s, but in fact acted as a front for Stalin and the Russian Communist Party. Communism became the enemy of the American government, with a long pause during the Second World War. Government investigations by the FBI and McCarthy attempted to unearth supporters and spies of the Soviet Union, while loyalty oaths sought to assure the public that its civil servants were true Americans, despite constitutional provisions of the First Amendment that allowed freedom of speech and assembly.

Over two specific periods, in 1919 and in the mid 1940s to the mid 1960s, the Red Scares saw Communists behind every bush, ready to overthrow the United States and turn it into a vassal of the Soviet Union. In A Time of Fear, Marrin describes the drama and the history of the Red Scares, demonstrating that Communists in the United States were never as prevalent as thought, nor as dangerous to the constitutional order as the methods used to root them out. Fans of history will appreciate learning more about this little known period, and will be able to draw parallels to our current terrorism and white supremacist environments.

The Cold War

Grant, Reg. The Cold War. 2012. 48p. ISBN 978-1-61535-606-5. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

The Cold War was the defining feature of the 2nd half of the 20th century. Two powerful countries, the United States and the Soviet Union, faced each other, promoting and defending their interests throughout the world. Uncomfortable allies against Germany and Japan in the Second World War, these two countries became known as superpowers. Armed with nuclear weapons and mobilizing allies, each side sought to neutralize the other without resorting to actual warfare. With the collapse of the Berlin Wall, which symbolically and physically divided the two sides, and the fall of the Soviet Union two years later, the Cold War came to an end. Though tensions perdure between the United States and Russia, the risk of complete destruction is less than it was during the Cold War.

This short book highlights the roots of the Cold War, and its importance in world history. Weapons development, hot conflicts between proxies, advanced spying, and other aspects of the Cold War are examined. Famous and infamous individuals and their roles during this conflict are also explored. A fascinating period in history, the Cold War leaves no one indifferent to the fact that studying history is important to see where we came from and where we might be heading.

This Is Just a Test

Rosenberg, Madelyn and Wendy Wan-Long Shang. This Is Just a Test. 2017. 244p. ISBN 978-1-338-03772-2. Available at FIC ROS on the library shelves.

As the only Chinese Jew he knows aside from his sister, David Da-Wei Horowitz feels very different from everyone else, especially as he’s preparing his bar mitzvah. David’s mother is Chinese, and her mother lives with them. David’s father is Jewish, and his mother lives a few blocks away from them in a suburb of Washington, D.C. Both grandmothers are always competing against each other to see who can cook the better dish, who can better care for the family, and who is loved more. David feels like a ping pong ball between the two of them, always trying to avoid offending either grandmother. Each grandmother endeavors to win David’s affection but rather successfully manage to embarrass him.

At school, David and best friend Hector are mostly ignored by the others, but when heartthrob Scott asks them to join his school trivia team, David jumps at the chance. He hopes to learn how to talk to the girl he likes, Kelli Ann. The three of them begin getting together to practice. Stressed about the upcoming school trivia tournament, David is also worried about his bar mitzvah, especially since both grandmothers are trying to plan it for him, and it has to top his cousin Jacob’s own celebration last year. However, looming larger in David’s mind is the possibility of nuclear annihilation. In this year 1983, both Americans and Soviets are facing each other in a Cold War, and each side has enough nuclear weapons to achieve mutually assured destruction. David is constantly worried that the bombs are about to fly, especially after watching a television special, The Day After. He decides to help Scott build a nuclear shelter in Scott’s back yard, where there will only be room for two, as Scott finds Hector weird. Can David reconcile his friends and manage to avoid dying of embarrassment at his bar mitzvah, or will the Soviets launch a nuclear attack and end it all?

The stress on children of living in the Cold War is palpable in this entertaining book. For other books representing life during the cold war, take a look either at A Night Divided, another historical book where an oppressive society, in this case East Germany, attempts to control the thoughts of its citizens and how a teenage girl fights back, or at The Enemy, taking place in the United States in the 1950s.

The Enemy

Holbrook, Sara. The Enemy. 2017. 256p. ISBN 978-1-62979-498-3. Available at FIC HOL on the library shelves.

In 1954 Detroit, the enemy is not as far as you think. With only nine years since the end of the Second World War, many survivors of the Nazi concentration camps have relocated to the United States, along with hundred of thousands of displaced persons and refugees. Nazis are still the favored villains for children, but Communists are also gaining ground. In the midst of the Red Scare, being different often means being the subject of intense scrutiny. Twelve-year-old Marjorie Campbell’s father, like most fathers, fought in the War, and brought back a dislike of the Germans. Her mother went to college during the war, but thing more than a glorified housewife and is not expected to contribute to society aside from raising her children, Margie and six years old Carol Anne.

At school, Margie is asked to share her desk in an overcrowded classroom with a new student from Canada, Inga. At first glance, it is clear that Inga is different. Her clothes are worn and shoddy, with a European flair. She wears two braids, when no one else does. She doesn’t speak English, and it soon becomes clear that she and her parents are Germans. Torn between loyalty to her friends and family, and her curiosity for the wider world, Margie has to thread a careful line, for adults and children alike are paranoids and are seeking to stamp the Red Menace wherever it can be found, and being friends with a Nazi is definitively not a reputation enhancer.

Can Margie, who discovers a subversive book titled  1984 at the local library, embrace her inner courage and become friends with Inga despite the obvious danger to her family and her reputation, or will she decide not to rock the boat by remaining safely involved with her group of friends?

An excellent book to understand the fear that grasped the United States in the 1950s, Margie’s story provides a powerful look at how being safe often means allowing evil to take place. Fans of Margie’s story should take a look at A Night Divided, another historical book where an oppressive society, in this case East Germany, attempts to control the thoughts of its citizens and how a teenage girl fights back.

Military Jets Up Close

Jackson, Robert. Military Jets Up Close. Part of the Military Technology: Top Secret Clearance series. 2016. 224p. ISBN 978-1-5081-7080-8. Available at 623.74 JAC on the library shelves.

Near the end of the Second World War, the Nazis’ engineers had produced the Messerschmitt Me 262, the first true military fighter jet, which ushers in the age of air power. Now aircrafts move faster than the speed of sound and can reach deep in enemy territories to seek and destroy targets.

As nations begin developing faster and better jets, they also seek to gain an edge over enemy nations. Locked in a cold war, Americans and Soviet engineers develop ever more sophisticated aircrafts capable of dominating the air above armies and navies. This book presents, in alphabetical order, fifty of the main military jets of the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, with a focus on American and Western planes. Illustrated with well-rendered 360-degree computer designed images, each of the jet is shown in seven different views: front and back, right side, left side, top and bottom. An actual picture of each airplane is also included.

Fans of military history and of military gear will appreciate the description and the history as well as advanced specifications for each jet.

The Military Technology: Top Secret Clearance series include Small Arms Up Close, Modern Warships Up Close, Warplanes of World War II Up Close, and Tanks of World War II Up Close.