Cold War, The

In 1945 war came to an end. But a whole new terror was only just beginning…The Cold War, the most gripping non-fiction book of the year, takes us as never before to the time when the world stood on the brink of destruction.Here is the truth behind every spy thriller you’ve read: why America and the Soviet Union became locked in a deadly stalemate; how close we really came to nuclear catastrophe; what was going on in the minds of leaders from Stalin to Mao Zedong, Reagan to Gorbachev; how secret agents plotted and East German holidaymakers helped the Berlin Wall fall. It is a story of crisis talks and subterfuge, tyrants and power struggles - and of ordinary people changing the course of history.‘Superb… brimful of racy incident’ Independent on Sunday‘Gripping and lucid… such an exhilarating book’ Evening Standard‘Brilliant’ Independent‘A lively and readable history’ The Times‘Compelling… Gaddis has deliberately written the Cold War for this generation’ Observer‘The perils and the politics fly at you off every page’ Peter Hennessy