During World War I, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) rose to prominence as an effective, militant union and then was destroyed by a devastating campaign of repression launched by the federal government. This book documents the rise and fall of this important industrial labor organization.The Industrial Workers of the World—or "Wobblies," as they were known—included legendary figures from U.S. labor history. Joe Hill, "Big Bill" Haywood, and Elizabeth Gurle...

This book tells the story of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the largest nonsectarian refugee relief agency in the world. Founded in the 1930s by socialist militants, the IRC attracted the support of renowned progressives such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Norman Thomas, and Reinhold Niebuhr. But by the 1950s it had been absorbed into the American foreign policy establishment. Throughout the Cold War, the IRC was deeply involved in the volatile confrontations between the two superpowers ...

**The New York Times bestselling companion to the Showtime documentary series now streaming on Netflix, updated to cover the past five years.“Indispensable…There is much here to reflect upon.” —President Mikhail Gorbachev“As riveting, eye-opening, and thought-provoking as any history book you will ever read...Can’t recommend it highly enough.” —Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian“Finally, a book with the guts to challenge the accepted narrative of recent...

A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2013A joint biography of John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, who led the United States into an unseen war that decisively shaped today's worldDuring the 1950s, when the Cold War was at its peak, two immensely powerful brothers led the United States into a series of foreign adventures whose effects are still shaking the world.John Foster Dulles was secretary of state while his brothe...

From a National Jewish Book Award–winning author: The "revelatory and shocking" investigation into the CIA's liberation of Nazi war criminals ( Kirkus Reviews).How did Gen, Karl Wolff, one of the highest-ranking members of the Nazi Party's Waffen-SS, who personally oversaw the deportation of three hundred thousand Jews to the Treblinka extermination camps, escape prosecution at the Nuremberg trials? As revealed in this groundbreaking investigation—culled fr...

The landmark story of Bush-Gorbachev diplomacy: "No one has ever given as complete and compelling an account of the higher reaches of foreign policy" ( Time).December 1989. The Berlin Wall had fallen. Millions across the Eastern Bloc were enjoying new freedoms. And the USSR was falling apart. But the peaceful end of the Cold War was far from assured, requiring the leaders of rival superpowers to look beyond the animosities of the past and embrace an uncerta...

In his thousand-day presidency John F. Kennedy led America through one of its most difficult and potentially explosive eras. With the Cold War at its height and the threat of communist advances in Europe and the Third World Kennedy had the unenviable task of maintaining U.S. solidarity without leading the western world into a nuclear catastrophe. In Kennedy's Wars noted historian Lawrence Freedman draws on the best of Cold War scholarship and newly released government documents to illumina...

With a new introduction by the authors, this is the classic account of the American statesmen who rebuilt the world after the catastrophe of World War II.A captivating blend of personal biography and public drama, The Wise Men introduces six close friends who shaped the role their country would play in the dangerous years following World War II.They were the original best and brightest, whose towering intellects, outsize personalities, and dramatic...

A searing account of a dark "chapter in U.S. Cold War history . . . to help the anti-Soviet aims of American intelligence and national security agencies" ( Library Journal).Even before the final shots of World War II were fired, another war began—a cold war that pitted the United States against its former ally, the Soviet Union. As the Soviets consolidated power in Eastern Europe, the CIA scrambled to gain the upper hand against new enemies worldwide. To th...

Provocative and highly controversial, The Nazi Hydra in America reveals the dark secrets of the fascist influence in the USA. While Eisenhower's troops defeated The Third Reich on the battlefields of Europe, the war against fascism was lost on the home front, to the very cadre of American plutocrats who built and paid for Hitler's war machine. At the center of this small confederacy two firms stand out: Brown Brothers & Harriman, and Sullivan & Cromwell. And at the very eye of this oligarc...

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes delivers a riveting account of the nuclear arms race and the Cold War.In the Reagan-Gorbachev era, the United States and the Soviet Union came within minutes of nuclear war, until Gorbachev boldly launched a campaign to eliminate nuclear weapons, setting the stage for the 1986 Reykjavik summit and the incredible events that followed. In this thrilling, authoritative narrative, Richard Rhodes draws on personal interviews with both Soviet ...

The plainspoken man from Missouri who never expected to be president yet rose to become one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century.In April 1945, after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the presidency fell to a former haberdasher and clubhouse politician from Independence, Missouri. Many believed he would be overmatched by the job, but Harry S. Truman would surprise them all.Few chief executives have had so lasting an impact. Truman ushered ...