The Cold War emerged after the Second World War as a nuclear stand-off between the superpowers of the USA and its NATO allies, and the Soviet Union and its east European Warsaw Pact allies. The accepted dates for the Cold War are 1947 to 1991, the year in which the Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe collapsed and the world witnessed the formal dissolution of the USSR, leaving the USA as the world's only superpower. In those intervening years the world had come dangerously close to nuclear Armageddon on several occasions.
As a long time student of the cold war I was pleasantly surprised that I found some new facts in this book, though it covers a lot of ground.
A previous reviewer commented that ', I absolutely loved the chapters about government facilities (or lack of them in the UK’s case!) and civil defence'. I have to say that there was no shortage of official facilities in the UK, there was a shortage of public use facilities as shelter, just like in the USA. The section that covered those was quite short, and also completely misunderstood the role of the 'official' UK war HQ at Corsham, called at various times 'Burlington', 'Chanticleer', and 'Turnstile'. Stil, he's in good company as Prof Hennessy who has written extensively about the UK & the Cold War was similarly misled. For a more extensive review of structures in the UK rather than the entire subject I'd recommend this:- https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cold-War-Bui...
Quick review: This was a Christmas gift that I enjoyed unwrapping, for the novelty of having my own Haynes manual relevant to my MA dissertation; and reading, as there is a good selection of topics discussed in the book. Some of the chapters about the science of nuclear weapons were a bit heavy going for me, a humble history graduate. However, I absolutely loved the chapters about government facilities (or lack of them in the UK’s case!) and civil defence. This was a fun gift and a good book, and I recommend it if you (or someone you love) enjoys this topic.