The CIA Book Club
The Best-Kept Secret of the Cold War
Format:Hardback
Publisher:HarperCollins Publishers
Published:13th Mar '25
£22.50 was £25.00
Available for immediate dispatch.
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£10.99was £10.99(9780008495169)
This book reveals how literature became a powerful tool during the Cold War, detailing the covert operations of the CIA Book Club and its impact on Eastern Europe.
The CIA Book Club unveils the remarkable tale of how ten million books were clandestinely transported across the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. For nearly fifty years after World War II, Europe was split by an impenetrable barrier, the Iron Curtain, which stretched for 4,300 miles from the Arctic to the Black Sea. This fortified division was not just a physical boundary; it represented a psychological battleground where the fight for hearts and minds took precedence over military confrontation.
At the center of this literary espionage was George Minden, who led a covert initiative known as the 'CIA books programme.' His mission was to leverage literature as a weapon against oppression. Operating from Manhattan, Minden's network infiltrated millions of banned books into the Eastern Bloc, featuring works from renowned authors such as Hannah Arendt, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and George Orwell. These volumes were smuggled in various creative ways, including trucks, yachts, and even balloons, reaching readers who would covertly share them, igniting a spirit of dissent.
Charlie English narrates this incredible story of bravery and ingenuity, focusing on key figures like Miroslaw Chojecki, a Polish publisher who faced severe consequences for his efforts. The CIA Book Club illustrates the transformative power of literature in the fight against tyranny, demonstrating that the written word can be a catalyst for freedom and change in the face of oppression.
A Book of the Year in the Daily Telegraph and Economist
'Vibrant, beautifully researched and exciting… a real pleasure to read – a finely written page-turner full of well-researched stories of smuggling, intrigue and survival'
Guardian
'Charlie English tells the tale of a 1980s secret operation in communist-controlled Poland… . A vivid and moving story. English is terrific at evoking the atmosphere of Poland in the 1970s and 1980s—not just the regime’s narrowed horizons and suffocating repression, but the excitement of the Solidarity trade union movement and the idealism of the young dissidents'
The Times, Dominic Sandbrook
'This covert CIA programme to undermine censorship in the Soviet bloc is the subject of Charlie English’s impressively detailed account… English does a first-rate job in piecing together this patchily known story in efficient, pacy prose'
Spectator
'Entertaining and vivid… This is a gripping account of an intriguing and little-known Cold War moment'
Observer
'Gripping…an extraordinarily detailed account of how the [CIA] Book Club set about capturing hearts and minds'
Daily Mail
'Spring-loaded with tradecraft, English’s account feels like it’s torn from the pages of Ian Fleming … An indelible reminder … that words matter, and that perhaps the most patriotic thing one can do is read'
Washington Post
'Reads like a thriller'
The Sun
'A story as fascinating as it is undersung … a riveting account centered on Poland in the turbulent 1980s, when the ‘war of ideas’ could exact real casualties. This was spycraft as soulcraft… . The publication of The CIA Book Club feels perfectly, painfully timely… . A reminder of what’s lost when a government no longer believes in the power of its own ideals'
New York Times Book Review
'A fascinating account of a world-changing covert operation and a first-rate contribution to the history of the CIA'
Tim Weiner, author of Legacy of Ashes
ISBN: 9780008495121
Dimensions: 240mm x 159mm x 38mm
Weight: 600g
384 pages