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 was not a war in the true sense of the word. While the two opposing sides often got involved in armed conflicts in other parts of the world, from Korea and Vietnam to the liberation wars of Africa, they never directly fired shots on each other's soil. Of course the main deterrent was fear of causing another world war but this fear also kept the tension between capitalism and communism alive for almost half a decade.
In an atmosphere of mistrust, you have the perfect breeding ground for spies. The Cold War soon became the golden era of the spy novel, especially in the USA and Britain. Few themes can inspire stories of intrigue, drama, adventure and action quite like espionage does.
John Le Carre is one of the leading writers of the spy thriller. His most famous book is probably 'The Spy Who Came In from the Cold' but he also wrote 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', 'The Constant Gardener' and 'The Russia House', all of which became successful movies too. Le Carre had the advantage that he used to be a spy himself, just like Graham Greene, another master of the genre. Many writers of spy thrillers also used to be journalists, like Frederick Forsythe.
Many authors of spy thrillers created characters that returned in novel after novel. Some of these characters became household names because of their portrayal in movies. Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan and Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne are just two examples. The one that has become everyone's favorite, however, is Ian Fleming's suave British agent known as Bond, James Bond.
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.
Non-fiction books on the topic abound too. There are some that deal with the entire era while others focus on specific events or people. For example, you'll find several books on the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy assassination or on figures like Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara. Some of the non-fiction books deal with the stories of regular, everyday people. Australian author Anna Funder, for instance, recorded the stories of East Germans in 'Stasiland: Stories From Behind the Berlin Wall'.
It's easy to find books on the era that defined the second half of the 1900s. A simple online search will point you in the right direction but you can also ask at any library or bookstore. Once you've found a Cold War author whose work you like, you'll be hooked.
The Cold War was not a war in the true sense of the word. While the two opposing sides often got involved in armed conflicts in other parts of the world, from Korea and Vietnam to the liberation wars of Africa, they never directly fired shots on each other's soil. Of course the main deterrent was fear of causing another world war but this fear also kept the tension between capitalism and communism alive for almost half a decade.
In an atmosphere of mistrust, you have the perfect breeding ground for spies. The Cold War soon became the golden era of the spy novel, especially in the USA and Britain. Few themes can inspire stories of intrigue, drama, adventure and action quite like espionage does.
John Le Carre is one of the leading writers of the spy thriller. His most famous book is probably 'The Spy Who Came In from the Cold' but he also wrote 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', 'The Constant Gardener' and 'The Russia House', all of which became successful movies too. Le Carre had the advantage that he used to be a spy himself, just like Graham Greene, another master of the genre. Many writers of spy thrillers also used to be journalists, like Frederick Forsythe.
Many authors of spy thrillers created characters that returned in novel after novel. Some of these characters became household names because of their portrayal in movies. Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan and Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne are just two examples. The one that has become everyone's favorite, however, is Ian Fleming's suave British agent known as Bond, James Bond.
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.
Non-fiction books on the topic abound too. There are some that deal with the entire era while others focus on specific events or people. For example, you'll find several books on the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy assassination or on figures like Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara. Some of the non-fiction books deal with the stories of regular, everyday people. Australian author Anna Funder, for instance, recorded the stories of East Germans in 'Stasiland: Stories From Behind the Berlin Wall'.
It's easy to find books on the era that defined the second half of the 1900s. A simple online search will point you in the right direction but you can also ask at any library or bookstore. Once you've found a Cold War author whose work you like, you'll be hooked.
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