For most of the second half of the Twentieth Century, the world was dominated by two superpowers with opposing ideologies. This atmosphere of fear and distrust made for some riveting stories, told through media like movies, musicals and of course books. With such a wide variety of books on the theme, it may be difficult to choose which Cold War author is your ideal storyteller. It may help you if you know what type of book you're looking for.
The Cold War wasn't really an armed conflict in the tradition of wars everywhere. Instead, it was a power struggle between the capitalist and communist countries. This tension was the underlying reason for foreign intervention in places like Korea, Vietnam and the revolutionary wars in Africa and Latin America but there was never a full-scale war specifically between the superpowers, the USA and the USSR.
One of the ways in which the superpowers fought one another was through espionage, trying to get the upper hand by knowing what the other side was planning. Espionage goes hand in hand with drama, intrigue, action, adventure and in some cases, even romance and these themes make for thrilling reading. That's why the spy thriller flourished during this era.
The king of the spy thriller is John Le Carre, who penned such classics as 'The Spy Who Came In from the Cold', 'The Russia House' and 'The Constant Gardener'. Like another popular writer in the genre, Graham Greene, Le Carre used to work for his country's secret service and had first-hand knowledge of the world of espionage. Journalists like Frederick Forsythe also made good authors of spy thrillers.
The espionage genre gave rise to some of the most popular fictional characters. Secret agents like Jack Ryan, created by Tom Clancy, and Jason Bourne, created by Robert Ludlum, returned in several novels and were immortalized on the silver screen too. The one that became the man every man wanted to be and every woman wanted to be with was Ian Fleming's martini-drinking, tuxedo-wearing Brit best known by his secret agent code, 007.
Life behind the Iron Curtain also inspired writers from communist countries, like political activist and later president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel. Some writers got into trouble with the authorities though. The Czech writer Milan Kundera lived in exile, for instance, while the Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas and the Soviet writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn both spent time in prison and eventually were forced to leave their home soil.
If you prefer non-fiction, you'll find a wealth of books that deal with every aspect of the era. There are political analyses, accounts of incidents like the Cuban Missile Crisis and biographies of key figures in the world arena. The stories of regular people are particularly moving, like those told in Anna Funder's 'Stasiland: Stories From Behind the Berlin Wall', about life in communist East Germany.
A good way to find your ideal Cold War author is to search online and then read the reviews of different people's works. You can also ask in your local bookstore or library. Then all you need is a quiet spot and some time to curl up with a great story.
The Cold War wasn't really an armed conflict in the tradition of wars everywhere. Instead, it was a power struggle between the capitalist and communist countries. This tension was the underlying reason for foreign intervention in places like Korea, Vietnam and the revolutionary wars in Africa and Latin America but there was never a full-scale war specifically between the superpowers, the USA and the USSR.
One of the ways in which the superpowers fought one another was through espionage, trying to get the upper hand by knowing what the other side was planning. Espionage goes hand in hand with drama, intrigue, action, adventure and in some cases, even romance and these themes make for thrilling reading. That's why the spy thriller flourished during this era.
The king of the spy thriller is John Le Carre, who penned such classics as 'The Spy Who Came In from the Cold', 'The Russia House' and 'The Constant Gardener'. Like another popular writer in the genre, Graham Greene, Le Carre used to work for his country's secret service and had first-hand knowledge of the world of espionage. Journalists like Frederick Forsythe also made good authors of spy thrillers.
The espionage genre gave rise to some of the most popular fictional characters. Secret agents like Jack Ryan, created by Tom Clancy, and Jason Bourne, created by Robert Ludlum, returned in several novels and were immortalized on the silver screen too. The one that became the man every man wanted to be and every woman wanted to be with was Ian Fleming's martini-drinking, tuxedo-wearing Brit best known by his secret agent code, 007.
Life behind the Iron Curtain also inspired writers from communist countries, like political activist and later president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel. Some writers got into trouble with the authorities though. The Czech writer Milan Kundera lived in exile, for instance, while the Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas and the Soviet writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn both spent time in prison and eventually were forced to leave their home soil.
If you prefer non-fiction, you'll find a wealth of books that deal with every aspect of the era. There are political analyses, accounts of incidents like the Cuban Missile Crisis and biographies of key figures in the world arena. The stories of regular people are particularly moving, like those told in Anna Funder's 'Stasiland: Stories From Behind the Berlin Wall', about life in communist East Germany.
A good way to find your ideal Cold War author is to search online and then read the reviews of different people's works. You can also ask in your local bookstore or library. Then all you need is a quiet spot and some time to curl up with a great story.
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