Books about Cold War

  1. Our Man in Havana

    by Graham Greene
    A humorous tale of espionage in Cold War Cuba, as a vacuum cleaner salesman attempts to outwit the British Secret Service.

    Graham Greene's classic Cuban spy story, now with a new package and a new introduction, First published in 1959,, Our Man in Havana, is an espionage thriller, a penetrating character study, and a ... (Goodreads)

  2. The Hunt for Red October

    by Tom Clancy
    A thrilling adventure of a submarine captain's race against the clock in a thrilling game of cat and mouse.

    During the Cold War ,(the story must be set in 1982, according to the days assigned to the dates in the novel, e.g. Dec. 17 was a Friday only in 1982,1976 and 1971 ) Marko Ramius, a Soviet Navy ... (Wikipedia)

  3. Perestroika

    by Tony Kushner
    A powerful look at the impact of political upheaval on the lives of ordinary people.

    Set in New York City, the play takes place between October 1985 and February 1986. , The play begins with the funeral of Sarah Ironson, an elderly Jewish woman, whose rabbi eulogizes not only her, ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Red Storm Rising

    by Tom Clancy
    An all-out war between NATO and the Soviet Union, as seen through the eyes of the soldiers.

    Militants from Azerbaijan destroy an oil production refinery in Nizhnevartovsk , threatening to cripple the Soviet Union's economy due to oil shortages. After much deliberation, the Soviet Politburo ... (Wikipedia)

  5. Gorky Park

    by Martin Cruz Smith
    A thrilling murder mystery, set in the Soviet Union, uncovering secrets and conspiracies.

    The story follows Arkady Renko , a chief investigator for the Moscow militsiya , who is assigned to a case involving three corpses found in Gorky Park , an amusement park in Moscow. The victims - two ... (Wikipedia)

  6. The Honourable Schoolboy

    by John le Carré
    A British agent's efforts to uncover a Soviet spy network in Southeast Asia.

    In 1974 George Smiley , the chief of the British secret intelligence service referred to as The Circus, is repairing the damage done to their operations by double agent Bill Haydon and looking for ... (Wikipedia)

  7. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

    by Kai Bird
    Biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, exploring his life and legacy.

    American Prometheus is the first full-scale biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, "father of the atomic bomb," the brilliant, charismatic physicist who led the effort to capture the awesome fire of the ... (Goodreads)

  8. Truman

    by David McCullough
    A biographical account of Harry S. Truman's rise to the Presidency and his impact on American history.

    The book provides a biography of Harry Truman in chronological fashion from his birth to his rise to U.S. Senator , Vice President , and President . It follows his activities until death, exploring ... (Wikipedia)

  9. Call for the Dead

    by John le Carré
    A spy thriller about a British agent's investigation into a diplomat's mysterious death.

    Following a wartime excursion undercover, first in Germany and then in Switzerland , George Smiley returns to England and marries Lady Ann Sercombe. Although a devout husband, Ann is serially ... (Wikipedia)

  10. The Spy Who Came In from the Cold

    by John le Carré
    A British agent's mission to infiltrate East Germany during the Cold War, full of suspense and intrigue.

    In this classic, John le Carre's third novel and the first to earn him international acclaim, he created a world unlike any previously experienced in suspense fiction. With unsurpassed knowledge ... (Goodreads)

  11. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

    by John le Carré
    A retired spy is called back into action to uncover a mole in the British Secret Service.

    Control , chief of the Circus, suspects one of the five senior intelligence officers at the Circus to be a long-standing Soviet mole and assigns code names with the intention that should his agent ... (Wikipedia)

  12. The Bear and the Dragon

    by Tom Clancy
    A thrilling geopolitical espionage mission to protect the US from a dangerous foreign threat.

    In Moscow, SVR director Sergey Golovko survives an attack on his way to work, when a car identical to the armored white Mercedes that he was in was shot with an RPG-7 , killing the occupants (one of ... (Wikipedia)

  13. The Way the Crow Flies

    by Ann-Marie MacDonald
    A girl growing up in the Cold War era, struggling to make sense of the secrets and lies that surround her.

    The optimism of the early sixties, infused with the excitement of the space race and the menace of the Cold War, is filtered through the rich imagination of high-spirited, eight-year-old Madeleine, ... (Goodreads)

  14. Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

    by Eric Schlosser
    An exploration of nuclear weapon safety and the risk of catastrophic accidents.

    A myth-shattering exposé of America’s nuclear weapons Famed investigative journalist Eric Schlosser digs deep to uncover secrets about the management of America’s nuclear arsenal. A groundbreaking ... (Goodreads)

  15. The Fourth Protocol

    by Frederick Forsyth
    A thrilling espionage story set in the Cold War, and a race against time to prevent a nuclear disaster.

    On New Year's Eve 1986, professional thief James Rawlings breaks into the apartment of a senior civil servant and inadvertently discovers stolen top secret documents. Despite being a notorious and ... (Wikipedia)

  16. Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall

    by Anna Funder
    An exploration of life in East Germany before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

    In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell; shortly afterwards the two Germanies reunited, and East Germany ceased to exist. In a country where the headquarters of the secret police can become a museum literally ... (Goodreads)

  17. The Fifties

    by David Halberstam
    A comprehensive history of the United States during the 1950s, exploring the cultural, political, and social changes of the era.

    The Fifties is a sweeping social, political, economic, and cultural history of the ten years that Halberstam regards as seminal in determining what our nation is today. Halberstam offers portraits of ... (Barnes & Noble)

  18. Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956

    by Anne Applebaum
    A historical account of the Soviet Union's takeover of Eastern Europe after World War II and the brutal repression that followed.

    In the long-awaited follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning Gulag , acclaimed journalist Anne Applebaum delivers a groundbreaking history of how Communism took over Eastern Europe after World War II ... (Goodreads)

  19. A Night Divided

    by Jennifer A. Nielsen
    A family's struggle to reunite after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

    A Night Divided joins the Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels. Includes exclusive bonus content! With the rise of the Berlin Wall, Gerta finds her family suddenly ... (Barnes & Noble)

  20. Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis

    by Robert F. Kennedy
    A firsthand account of the tense 13 days in October 1962 when the world was on the brink of nuclear war.

    During the thirteen days in October 1962 when the United States confronted the Soviet Union over its installation of missiles in Cuba, few people shared the behind-the-scenes story as it is told here ... (Goodreads)

  21. Moonraker

    by Ian Fleming
    British spy James Bond investigates a sinister plot to hijack a space rocket and use it as a weapon.

    The British Secret Service agent James Bond is asked by his superior, M , to join him at M's club, Blades . A club member, the multi-millionaire businessman Sir Hugo Drax , is winning considerable ... (Wikipedia)

  22. The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal

    by David E. Hoffman
    A gripping true story of espionage, betrayal, and the struggle against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

    From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning history, The Dead Hand, comes the riveting story of a spy who cracked open the Soviet military research establishment and a penetrating portrait of the ... (Goodreads)

  23. Ice Station Zebra

    by Alistair MacLean
    An explosive mission to rescue a British spy from a remote Arctic base.

    Drift ice Station Zebra, a British meteorological station built on an ice floe in the Arctic Sea , suffers a catastrophic oil fire; several of its men die, and their shelter and supplies are ... (Wikipedia)

  24. The Cardinal of the Kremlin

    by Tom Clancy
    US and Soviet forces battle for control of a powerful satellite system.

    For thirty years, Colonel Mikhail Semyonovich "Misha" Filitov, a personal aide to the Soviet Minister of Defense and war hero, has been passing military, technical, and political intelligence to the ... (Wikipedia)

  25. Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot

    by Bill O'Reilly
    A detailed account of the events leading up to the assassination of President Kennedy.

    Tthe anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts in gripping detail the brutal murder of John Fitzgerald Kennedy—and how a sequence of gunshots on a Dallas afternoon not only killed a beloved president ... (Goodreads)

  26. The Astronaut Wives Club

    by Lily Koppel
    The story of the women who supported America's early space program, showing strength and resilience.

    As America's Mercury Seven astronauts were launched on death-defying missions, television cameras focused on the brave smiles of their young wives. Overnight, these women were transformed from ... (Goodreads)

  27. The Russia House

    by John le Carré
    An espionage mission filled with suspense and intrigue set during the Cold War.

    In 1987, Bartholomew "Barley" Scott Blair, a British publisher , is at a book fair in Moscow . With business friends he goes on a drunken retreat to a secluded dacha in the forest near Peredelkino . ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Agent 6

    by Tom Rob Smith
    A former Soviet spy searches for his missing wife in 1960s New York, uncovering a web of conspiracy and betrayal.

    Tom Rob Smith—the bestselling, award-winning author of Child 44 , and one of the most critically-acclaimed new writers of our time—returns with a thrilling and provocative new novel: Agent 6 . How ... (Goodreads)

  29. Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall

    by Nina Willner
    A family's story of separation and reunion during the Cold War, spanning four decades and two sides of the Berlin Wall.

    In this illuminating and deeply moving memoir, a former American military intelligence officer goes beyond traditional Cold War espionage tales to tell the true story of her family—of five women ... (Barnes & Noble)

  30. The Charm School

    by Nelson DeMille
    A former CIA agent must stop a group of ex-KGB agents from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

    The novel's hero is U.S Air Force Colonel Sam Hollis, a former F-4 Phantom Fighter pilot , who fought in Vietnam . Hollis was shot down during the war , and was disqualified from flying. Later on he ... (Wikipedia)

  31. Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency

    by Bill O'Reilly
    An examination of the attempted assassination of President Reagan and its aftermath.

    In 1981, after delivering a speech at the Washington Hilton Hotel on March 30, President Reagan is shot by John Hinckley, Jr. . Near death, Reagan's life is in the balance in the hands of doctors at ... (Wikipedia)

  32. American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964

    by William Manchester
    A biography of the military leader, tracing his long and complicated career in the U.S. Army.

    MacArthur, the public figure, the private man, the soldier-hero whose mystery and appeal created a uniquely American legend, portrayed in a biography that will challenge the cherished myths of ... (Goodreads)

  33. Eisenhower in War and Peace

    by Jean Edward Smith
    Biography of Dwight Eisenhower's life, from World War II to the Cold War.

    NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY, The Christian Science Monitor • St. Louis Post-Dispatch, In his magisterial bestseller FDR, Jean Edward Smith gave us a fresh, modern look at one of the ... (Goodreads)

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