Cold Warriors: Writers Who Waged the Literary Cold War – A Gripping History of Prose, Politics, and Espionage

by Duncan White

In this brilliant account of the literary war within the Cold War, novelists and poets become embroiled in a dangerous game of betrayal, espionage, and conspiracy at the heart of the vicious conflict fought between the Soviet Union and the West

During the Cold War, literature was both sword and noose. Novels, essays, and poems could win the hearts and minds of those caught between the competing creeds of capitalism and communism. They could also lead to blacklisting, exile, imprisonment, or execution for their authors if they offended those in power. The clandestine intelligence services of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union recruited secret agents and established vast propaganda networks devoted to literary warfare. But the battles were personal, too: friends turned on one another, lovers were split by political fissures, artists were undermined by inadvertent complicities. And while literary battles were fought in print, sometimes the pen was exchanged for a gun, the bookstore for the battlefield.

In Cold Warriors, Duncan White vividly chronicles how this ferocious intellectual struggle was waged on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Among those involved were George Orwell, Stephen Spender, Mary McCarthy, Graham Greene, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, John le Carré, Anna Akhmatova, Richard Wright, Ernest Hemingway, Boris Pasternak, Gioconda Belli, and Václav Havel. Here, too, are the spies, government officials, military officers, publishers, politicians, and critics who helped turn words into weapons at a time when the stakes could not have been higher.

Drawing upon years of archival research and the latest declassified intelligence, Cold Warriors is both a gripping saga of prose and politics, and a welcome reminder that--at a moment when ignorance is all too frequently celebrated and reading is seen as increasingly irrelevant--writers and books can change the world.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Writing, War, Literary Criticism, Books About Books

800 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Associate Director of Studies in History & Literature at Harvard University

Reviews

[Jim Razinha · Rating 3 out of 5]

So last year an uncorrected proof of this book arrived from the publisher and I had no idea why. I didn't request it and when I called the number on the return label to find out which source had it sent (I request books from different sites) so I could post the review the guy I got said he was a warehouse and just shipped whatever book to whatever address he's told to. The book I had requested took a couple more months, which worked out in my favor because I got a full printed copy of that one. Anyway, none of my resources listed this up for offer so I shelved it to eventually get to, as the subject did look interesting. Then, back in August, I picked it up. Yes, August. It's a dense text and I kept setting it aside for other books.

White has put together a sweeping case for the pen being mightier than the sword (though we all know that the mutually assured destruction had more than a bit to do with the end of the so-called Cold War...) He admits that there is no real way to measure how effective literature was in affecting the readers of both sides, but as he lays out over his 700 pages the US and Soviet Union both took it seriously.

I was fascinated at all of the various spying some prominent and less prominent but no less influential novelists did. The NKVD really got it claws into quite a few. And the incredible resources applied to combating the two political paradigms is boggling. Long before Putin set his sights on using social media to bring about his desired outcome for an election, the Soviet Union was backing peace conferences in the West - lion and lamb metaphors are implied. And the US intelligence agencies funded their own anti-Soviet conferences and publications. The Soviets were quicker out of the box, though and the West had some catching up to do, slow to realize that they were already infiltrated.

McCarthy's rabid zeal for trapping communist sympathies was at least mostly public. The Soviet writers, and composers (Shostakovitch really comes to mind) and other artists, had it worse than a blacklist. When Isaac Babel was arrested by the NKVD in 1939, they sealed his study after removing everything written from it and then began pulling his books from libraries. "The man had been arrested; the writer was being erased." Nikolai Yezhov, perpetrator of so many horrors before becoming a victim of his own machine said, "We are launching an attack on the Enemy; let there be no resentment if we bump someone with an elbow. Better that ten innocent people should suffer than one spy get away. When you cop wood, chips fly." The number of flying chips is to this day numbing.

Some writers profiled here - that's rather an understatement; chronicled, illuminated, ... revealed/unveiled, is more accurate - are widely known of by the masses (example: Orwell). Some less so, and some quite a bit less so as they've fallen into the great melting pot of history. And White has captured a lot of history. A lot. This was a dismal time for many, and for the Soviets, tragic, caught up in Purges and more.

The text reads well, and at times like a thriller. As with most histories, an author can only know so much (if really at all) and must necessarily fill in. Skilled historians do so with insight, non-historian hacks like Martin Dugard and his co-"writer" make up stuff. White is skilled.

One small note I flagged I'll shared here. White quoted FDR:

Books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever. No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man's eternal fight against tyranny. In this war, we know books are weapons.

So... inspiration for Bradbury?

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Duncan White's Cold Warriors is an engrossing history of the writers who wielded their pen for political ends and how their governments promoted or silenced them during the Cold War.

The war was a conflict of ideas and books were used as weapons to attack political ideologies by writers on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Some authors were spies while others unknowingly worked for CIA-funded publications. Writers resistant to government policy and programs were silenced, punished, imprisoned or killed.

Dense with information, the book has the impetus of a thriller filled with shocking twists and multilayered characters. The story begins with the Spanish Civil War and the disenchantment of George Orwell, spurring him to write his greatest novels. White follows the Cold Was to the end of the Berlin Wall, Glasnost, and the Prague Spring with stories like that of the Czech playwright Vaclav Havel who was found guilty of subversion and imprisoned yet became president.


I grew up seeing these writer's names on the bookshelves at the stores where I spent my allowance on paperbacks. I had no idea of their political stance or that some were spies!

George Orwell, whose Animal Farm I bought and read as a teen
Arthur Koestler, whose Darkness at Noon I had erringly thought was a science fiction book
Boris Pasternak, whose Dr. Zhivago I read after seeing the movie
Alexander Solzhenitsyn's books were published when I was a young adult and at one time I owned all his books in hardcover
Graham Greene I thought was a Catholic Writer.
Mary McCarthy's The Group was a best seller
Stephen Spender, who signed my copy of his book of selected poems at a poetry reading
John le Carre, pen name of David Cornwall, an M16 spy whose fictionalized spy-talk became adopted in real life

Plus

Andrei Sinyavsky
Richard Wright
Ernest Hemingway
Gioconda Belli
Vaclav Havel,
Joan Didion
Isaac Babel
Howard Fast
Lillian Hellman
Mikhail Sholokhov

Duncan concludes that the battle between Communism and Capitalism has morphed into a war between forms of democracy and authoritarianism and populist nationalism.

Today's writers still resist and condemn and create bring visions of the kind of country and world we must become to flourish and, very possibly, to survive. One lesson I learned from this book is that regardless of how I personally feel about a writer's ideas, the rights of freedom of speech and a free press is precious and integral to the preservation of a free society.

I was given access to a free egalley by the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

[Bert Hirsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cold Warriors by Duncan White

Duncan White is a lecturer in both history and literature at Harvard University and his new book, Cold Warriors: Writers Who Waged the Literary Cold War, is a worthwhile read for anyone with these dual interests. It roughly covers the span from the Spanish Civil war to the fall of the Berlin War and the Soviet Union. It depicts the unique role writers played in the ongoing struggle for dominance between the Western capitalist societies and the Socialist sphere dominated by Russia.

George Orwell, Arthur Koestler, Ernest Hemingway, Mary McCarthy, Kim Philby, John Le Carre, Graham Greene, Howard Fast, Richard Wright, Boris Pasternak, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Vaclav Havel become major characters in this wide-ranging tale.

White does an excellent job of providing back stories with little gems and gossip to enhance this tale of intrigue and courage. On the political side he makes it clear that the Soviet, American and British Secret Services attempted to both promote, suppress and manipulate these writers to their own pollical gains.

Both Le Carre and Graham were themselves of both spheres, starting off as government agents before they became masters of fiction and suspense. Hemingway led a small regiment of partisan fighters to aid the liberation of Paris at the end of WW II. Vaclav Havel ended up as President of Czechoslovakia becoming a major player in the fall of the Soviet Empire while partying with Lou Reed, the Rolling Stones and designating Frank Zappa as a roving cultural envoy for this newly independent country.

Due to Duncan White’s deep understanding of both history and literature, his fine writing, fun tidbits and grasp of the larger picture this 700 odd page book is a quick and entertaining read that I recommend to those interested in the history of writers as political persons.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 25 hour audiobook that managed to keep my attention throughout, although I did find that bouncing back and forth between different personalities, sometimes with a huge gap before they were reintroduced, was a bit confusing at times, and I had to try to recall the thread of that particular story when it was picked back up. I had heard of some of the larger names, such as Orwell, Greene, and Hemingway, but also learned about a bunch of new authors, especially in the genre of poetry and playwriting. My favorite section of the book centered around the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, which became a proxy for anti-fascists to participate in. But this became a very dangerous game to play, as many foreigners who came to Spain to support the republican cause found themselves arrested and in some cases executed if they were considered spies or attempted to desert. Really fascinating stuff.

[Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 25 hour unabridged audiobook.

An interesting overview of George Orwells time fighting in, and escaping from, the Spanish Civil War. I had not even known he had been shot in the neck.

This book was my introduction to Koestler, a man with a horrible personal life, but a one time communist who became a fervent anti communist.

This book covers repression of both the Soviet and American governments, albeit the Soviet one is much worse. They'll literally execute writers they feel are enemies of their systems, and in the case of Anna Akhmatova - sent her son to a gulag until she wrote poems that were praising Stalin in the hopes of earning her sons release.

Another author I was introduced to was an American- Howard Fast (he write Spartacus), who can accurately be described as a Communist stooge. He finally broke with Communism and issued a mea culpa (perhaps too little too late).

As an aside, the authors of the 1930's to 1950's sure seemed to have quite the number of sexual escapades.

The author notes many American authors who were against US involvement in the Vietnam War. Some of whom visited North Vietnam. I wish he better explained which were opposed because they favored Communism and which were opposed because they wanted the US to have a more isolationist foreign policy in these matters.

I enjoyed the overview given about Solzhenitsyn. He is my favorite Cold War author.

Naturally this was mostly about authors and poets, but songwriters and playwrights were not ignored either. Overall I liked this book.

[Richard Derus]

Sale through 6 October 2021

[Dustin]

The Guardian recently published a phenomenal review of Duncan White's Cold Warriors. Here is the link:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201.... Duncan White

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very long but engrossing look at the reciprocal power of literature to influence and respond to history and vice-versa. It taught me a lot about the interplay of communism, socialism, propaganda, and government interference. It also really helped fill out the gaps in my understanding of the Spanish Civil War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the succession of Russian regimes, Contras, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War.

I was very interested to hear the detailed breakdown of Animal Farm's allegory as I had received only a cursory explanation in high school. I was also shocked to learn that many of the writers intimately involved in fighting communism and fascism abroad were actually supporters of a liberal (and true) socialism.

Indeed, 1984 was intended to be simultaneously anti-totalitarian and pro-socialist, but was co-opted by politically right groups as a pro-capitalist manifesto. This was in part due to Orwell's choice to name the censored language of the world INGSOC, which was directly interpreted as "English Socialism."

While I overall quite enjoyed the book, there are three criticisms I have.

First, White relies heavily on readers' knowledge of wartime writers. However, I was unfamiliar with a handful of the key players (Koestler, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, Sinyavsky, McCarthy) and often confused the writers.

Second, White jumps around in time some, which for someone (like me) who is shaky on history and timelines, this was sometimes jarring or unclear.

Third, and this is more a complaint about history more than the book itself, but White casually recognizes Arthur Koestler as a serial predator who assaulted his dates and female colleagues and penned such charming lines as “without an element of initial rape in seduction there is no delight." Yet, we also spend a hefty portion of the book following and invested in the life of this reptile. Yuck.

Lastly, this book had some interesting crossover with When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning.

[Jason Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent book starts with copies of Animal Farm being dropped into Russia by the US as propaganda and ends with the free availability of this and other books following Glasnost. Along the way , in the study of the literature of the Cold War, there are familiar and unfamiliar characters ; also some great backstory . I loved the account of the genesis of Smiley.

There is an even handed ness too - we get the horror of the Stalinist purges but also of the McCarthyist persecution of the American left. There’s also good stuff on periodicals on both sides and also a nod to popular culture via the Czech rock band Plastic People. Shame there wasn’t more on film and music in this context.

The end of the Cold War is an exhilarating whirl though still with its terrors. In the midst are writers like Graham Greene whose loyalties were always ambiguous, and John Le Carre . But there are many other literary riches here too . Sometimes the pen is mightier than the sword.

[Hashim Alsughayer · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book published in 2019 that still can't showcase a fair point of view. Writers still, after all the research presented after the end of the first Cold War, still need to take sides. Still think that there were two sides of the war, a right one and another wrong one.

The problem this book presented was that it showed a problem that many Western writers fall into, which is writing a biased book that presents the negatives of the other without any real depth on the social and political impact the Cold War had.

As a Middle Eastern, I naturally don't take sides when it comes to the Cold War. So I wanted to read a book that presents each side, with its negatives but also its positives. That didn't happen with White's book. White's point of view was very soft when it came to the problematic facts and events the US went through, but very demanding and hard on the Soviet side of events.

Very disappointed with this read.

[Gina Dalfonzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not the easiest read (and certainly not the shortest!), but it's a very valuable one. I'd go so far as to call it an essential one for anyone interested in history, politics, and/or literature. Few figures come out of the story smelling like a rose (aside from all the compromise and corruption and ethical murkiness, was there a writer on either side who was faithful to his or her spouse??). But in an odd way, their feet of clay make the stories of courage, self-sacrifice, and devotion to freedom all the more astounding and noteworthy.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 stars, .5 for novelty and scope of the book - huge fan of this book, which firmly establishes the importance of the written word in the Cold War competition before walking us through the absolutely fascinating lives of the writers whose works defined the times.

Right from the start, we get the details of a CIA operation to drop books behind the Iron Curtain through the use of hot air balloons, as well as the Soviet response (using their Air Force to shoot them down). It’s a throwback to a time when books were considered extremely powerful as well as extremely dangerous, and a great way to frame this epic story.

As the author notes, with the presence of nuclear weapons on both sides, never had a struggle between two countries contained such an intellectual dimension - the ‘war’ was often quite literally a war of ideas. 1984 and Animal Farm of course come to mind, but this 700 page read documents hundreds of additional books from all the major players on both the Western and Soviet side, as well as their absolutely riveting personal lives. Authors who were drawn to romantic revolution, become disillusioned, apologize for Stalin, and so much more. On the Soviet side, so many were sent to the gulags.

The common thread to all stories is that intelligence services played such a consistent, if largely hidden, role in all this. Folks are perhaps most familiar with the Soviet side, with the KGB tracking down every manuscript and shred of paper written by intellectuals and clearing it (digging up backyards, sifting through fires, pulping hundreds of thousands of books, and so much more). In the West, EU and US agencies were very active in trying to nudge events in certain directions, realizing the potential for certain literature that could be weaponized against the USSR and dramatically boosting production, establishing conferences to get certain writers to cross paths, or quietly funding certain magazines, some of which at times confused intellectuals who prized their intellectual independence.

Fascinating as well were the stories in the older tradition of former spies becoming journalists and writers, as well as the defections back and forth (Kim Philby, etc). The book wraps up with John Le Carre and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

My favorite parts of the book revolved around 1930s Spain, where this kaleidoscopic array of writers, journalists, spies, and military officers mingled and either fought with or against each other. It is simply incredible to read about this time where authors and intellectuals, far removed from their Ivory Towers, went off to shoot at German fascists in the morning, discuss existentialism and huge ideas over lunch with coffee, dodge Italian artillery shells in the afternoon, and hide cyanide pills in false teeth before going to bed in case the fascists took their position while they were sleeping, always of course being mindful of snipers who picked off people as ran through contested parts of cities to get to cafes. Wow. Also, Russians know how to write, that is for sure.

I deeply appreciate how well researched this book is - my notes contain the names of dozens and dozens of authors on both sides, as well as more than 100 books that defined this struggle, can’t wait to dig into all of that.

I would have enjoyed more closure at the end of the book - it wraps up in a hurry, almost aware that it’s hard to stop a book full of the biggest ideas in the 20th century as lived and told by the most famous authors in the world in any manner other than to just finally hit the brakes. Still, a few big thoughts by the author at the end about the state of intellectual warfare (for lack of a better term) today would have been interesting, as well as discussing how, if at all, this applies to the 21st century. It did make a passing reference about the death of ideology (idea being that the US, Russia and China are all just variants on capitalism), but I’m not so sure.

I have a hunch the war for ideas is about to heat up again, and there may be some lessons here. The age of warfare through books might be over, but the war of ideas never ends.

[Peter Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Cold Warriors: writers who waged the literary Cold War,” by Duncan White (Custom House, 2019). The Cold War---and before that, even before the Bolshevik Revolution---was a war of ideas, and for much of it the Communists seemed to have the better ideas. About how to organize society, provide for the people, how to govern, etc. Because it was about ideas, the people who trafficked in thought and imagination had strategic and tactically important roles. Literature, to use a modern term, was weaponized. Journalists, novelists, poets, playwrights provided more than propaganda; they created characters, described situations, analyzed the results (I just realized a resemblance to science fiction, which also posits situations and tries to see what would happen). So: Orwell, Koestler, Greene, Solzhenitzyn, Pasternak, Pavel wrote about what happened. Orwell in Catalonia, for a perfect example, saw how Soviet Communists destroyed their leftist allies as eagerly as they fought fascists. And that was before he got to “Animal Farm” and
“1984.” “Animal Farm” and even more, “1984,” probably had real effects on the defeat of Communism in western Europe. Koestler described how the Communist ideologues could turn a person’s mind against itself. Solzhenitsyn provided portraits of life in the Soviet gulags; etc. But there was more to it than literary portrayals. Both sides spent money and effort in covert campaigns. The Soviets had their very extensive, internationally organized front groups, but the CIA funded magazines, publishing houses, tours, authors---often without their knowledge, but often with their knowledge. And then there were the actual spies (here the Soviets clearly beat the West), such men as Kim Philby, who actually became a high-level counterespionage official for the British while being a spy for the other side. Stephen Spender; WH Auden---they too were deeply involved in writing for the other side. John Le Carré (David Cornwell) was in fact a British operative who saw some of the things he wrote about, although he made up the organizational elements. White spends a bit more time than necessary on some of the espionage details and perhaps on events surrounding the writers’ activities (the history of the Spanish Civil War, though he explains it very clearly). But his description of what led up to the end of the USSR, with Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and finally back to Putin, is lucid and helpful. The Reds were so much better organized than the West, which makes sense because they had actual plans and centralized planning, of course. One interesting element, for me, is the major writers who aren’t there: Wolfe, Fitzgerald, Bellow, Updike, Faulkner, Roth. But there are Hemingway, Nabokov (a bit), a touch of Mailer. Finally, in conclusion, White says this is not likely to happen again because we no longer are in a conflict of ideas but materials and systems within an essentially capitalist structure. Even the Chinese are materialists within their totalitarian world. Fascinating book.

https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062...

[George Siehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

What do you call a book by an author who researches diligently and writes engagingly about a subject in which you are very interested? Excellent? What about if he is writing about several subjects, all of which are of interest to you? Oh, and the author weaves the interrelationships in solid connections: what then? I have just read such a book, Cold Warriors, by Duncan White, and it is all of the above. I call it fantastic. Literature, history, intelligence agencies, the Cold War, geopolitics, and international relations are all areas of interest to me: they are all presented here in intimate detail.

White introduces scores of authors, many of them familiar names dating back to the 1930's. Most of them politically liberal, many admirers of the Soviet Union to varying degrees. He points out the frictions this caused among these writers. Some found the Soviet treatment of writers during the purges, show trials, and disappearances of the pre World War Two days unacceptable. Others were
able to look away and retain their support of the system. The onset of the Cold War saw both the Soviets and the democratic West compete with both arms and ideas. Culture became a battlefront while books became ammunition. Through the course of the book, White traces the reshaping of literary relationships among these varying partisan views. His work provides interesting new biographical insights into well known authors.

Both the KGB and the CIA funded organizations, conferences, and publications by routing the money through intermediaries to cover their source. White explains the CIA sponsorship of the publication Encounter which catered to intellectual circles. While it offered a continuing diet of anti-communist articles, it also contained many pieces which had no direct political orientation. In most cases, the authors did not know who was paying for their work. When this became known it created a black eye for the agency and angst for some of the writers to find they had been used. One can recognize the ethical lapse in this dollar diplomacy approach to influencing public opinion. On balance, however, it seems a bit less brutal than the tools available to the authoritarian state: censorship, the Gulag, or liquidation.

Recurring characters across the essay-like chapters include George Orwell, Arthur Koestler, Stephen Spender, Kim Philby, Graham Greene, Mary McCarthy, Ernest Hemingway, Boris Pasternak, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and David Cornwell (John le Carre). Vaclav Havel is featured in one of the most enjoyable chapters of the book. If none of these is familiar, there are more, from East and West.

Highly, highly recommended for general readers an anyone interested in one or more of the topics flagged above. This book is a pleasure to read, and a treasure for reference.

[Peter Wise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extensive history of how the West and the Soviet Union influenced, directed and duped writers of either side of the ideological divide, beginning with the Spanish Civil War and ending with the dissolution of the USSR in the 1990s. There are really no surprises chronicled here, no spectacular revelations about how governments seek to implement policy through culture but it's a really good read despite the length. While I also sensed in advance, it would be favorable to the West this is as much because the author IS from the West and a cultural bias is to be expected. He gets the facts straight and that's really all that matters. What I do find weak about the narrative is White doesn't seem to grasp the roots of the rise of Bolshevism and the ensuing victories, defeats and corruption of the Revolution's principles along the lines of the second law of thermodynamics but perhaps that's not within the scope of an already large book. Somewhat amusing is how writers, especially on the side of the capitalist west could easily be duped by the CIA and MI5 - especially anti-communist leftists who were the toast of the academic world. Writers in Soviet bloc nations and the USSR itself were not as naive and in many ways this dichotomy seems more like a division between ghetto kids and Birkenstock bourgeoisie. Nevertheless, some writers shine. My favorite is Graham Greene and his relatively incorruptible course through the Cold War as a writer who could see through governmental and political machinations as well or better than George Orwell. The style and execution of this book are both excellent - how it's organized is quite comprehensible and it allows for an enjoyable read unhindered by complicated prose. It's almost journalistic and I look at that as a positive. Finally, the author's conclusions are forthright and to my mind, exactly correct: the Cold War was "won" for the wrong reasons in retrospect, not just because the victors write the history (they always do) but because the ramifications of the fall of the USSR are certainly as dark as any nuclear war scenario people of my generation were taught to fear. These are my words, not the author's implicitly, but I think the inference is that capitalism triumphant will doom this planet as surely as the H-bomb now that the ideological wars have ceased.

[Terry Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING Story. I highly recommend this book.
The writers of the time are easily cast into generalizations but that is too easy. The author's decision to tell the literary history of the Cold war through the writers and the books they wrote is both statement and argument, The work is based on declassified documents, archival work and in the words of the authors themselves.

This book fills an critically important history in an overlooked aspect of the Cold War. Everyone is familiar with propaganda, however this book is different. This book is about the authors and the transformation some of them made from socialism, to communism, to outright hate of Stalinism; or on the other hand, stiffened resolve to remain loyal to communism. This book looks at how literature on both sides of the iron curtain was the key to winning the hearts and minds - it is also a story about how serious his was to the Superpowers. By 1940, the Soviet Union was professional in its use of propaganda and disinformation. Despite the fact that the Office of war Information was stood up in 1942, it would still take the US another 15 years to even catch up with the sophistication of the Soviets. During this period, the suppression of literature and the consequences for deviation became much more serious.
The list of writers is a list of who's who - F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, T.S.Eliot, Steinbeck, Edmund Wilson, Mikhail Sholokhov, Vasily Grossman (until he converted), George Orwell, Maxim Gorky, Boris Pasternak..et.al..
The campaign to influence writers was overt and covert. Some of these authors advertently or inadvertently were recruited. Some found out afterwards they had been duped and others went in with eyes wide open.
The dynamics of all this also made the US Government a supporter of difficult elitist art of James Joyce and William Faulkner, simply because it was banned by Moscow. The lines were blurred between official validation, collaboration, and sanction. These artists and writers were on the frontline of how the Cold war was played out - the led double lives, acted as spies, volunteered for foreign wars, engaged in insurgencies, churned out propaganda, and exposed hypocrisy. Lastly, this book is about complicity and duplicity and how the writers grappled with it - albeit sometimes this must be inferred by how they reacted and their actions.

[Nathan Gilliatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is history told from a different perspective from most books and classes. The writers, poets and playwrights whose stories are told here aren't obscure, but they aren't conventionally powerful. The main message of Cold Warriors is that, in the 20th century, literature was perceived as powerful, and governments on both sides of the century's great contest wanted it on their side.

Telling the story of the half-century-long Cold War requires a running start and a cooldown, so the book starts in the Spanish Civil War and end with discussion of Putin's Russia. There's a lot of material here, and I sometimes found myself wondering why I was getting so much detail on the life of a writer I haven't read. I would have enjoyed it more if I knew more of the writers; the upside is that I now know a few more I should probably read.

This book is a mix of Cold War history, literary history, and biography. It benefits from distance from the events, since more of what was going on is now known. The focus on writers is a valuable perspective, especially since they were writing from inside the story. They fought in the wars. They were spies in the intelligence wars. They witnessed first-hand the oppression that fell on unwanted opposition and truth-tellers. One even became a head of state.

It's a long book, and because the of the time scale, I found myself with different responses to different periods. Reading about pre-WWII contests of vibrant and complex ideologies helped me understand the 1980s views of a grandparent who came of age during those arguments. The sections on the later Cold War helped put events into a single timeline and introduce me to some of the thinkers who supported what we would think of as the other side.

It's a long book, but I found it picking up momentum in the last few hundred pages. Some of that was probably familiarity—I remember some of those events. But knowing that the Cold War ended, you start to feel the end coming, even as the Soviet government tried to reassert control through continued repression.

The author's closing thoughts on the relative importance of literature (and ideology, really) in the 20th century compared to now made for a fitting conclusion and solid food for continued thought. And really, what else can you ask of a history book?

[Jamie Huston · Rating 5 out of 5]

A variety in one volume: part narrative history, part literary appreciation, part biography of a couple of dozen interesting figures.

This dense but fast paced book really covers the whole global sweep of the Cold War through the lens of the writers who formed it, or who at least were major players in it (and believe that they were!). Examples of the anecdotes that anchor typical chapters: the story of the Bandung conference is told through the involvement of Richard Wright, the background of the Iran-Contra scandal is illuminated via Nicaraguan poet Gioconda Belli, Vietnam is ironically clarified by the checkered reporting of Mary McCarthy.

The book opens with episodes summarizing the Spanish Civil War through the eyes of young writer George Orwell.

Hemingway gets an exciting chapter. So does Pasternak.

Some chapters are more exciting than others, but even the duller ones tell useful history tales that I hadn't known, like that about three of the Cambridge Five, a notorious international spy ring.

Author Duncan White is always nonpartisan, and both sides of the aisle--over decades and around the world--take their lumps. I always appreciate that.

I never would have thought that Spartacus was written as a pro-socialist tract, based on the inspiringly anodyne Hollywood classic, but it makes perfect sense now.

Like any great book, it got harder to put down closer to the end, perhaps because the last few chapters cover events of my own lifetime. It's amazing to see the curtain pulled back on proper propaganda from one's own childhood.

I admit, on page 668, when the Berlin Wall finally fell, my eyes misted up a little.

Well balanced narratively and ideologically, and written with a deft prose hand, this book is a highly recommended take on 20th century history.

[Alismcg · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Cold Warriors” has at this point been raised into position as the ⭐️ that tops my book journal’s tree — stealing TOP place from Rutherfurd’s Russka — as my #1 read for 2019. Here’s a splendid NEW release that truly shines in celebration of an entire era of literature. “It is a story of novels, poems,and plays being weaponized as propaganda. But it is also the story of what happens when writers resist, when they fight back, when they take the risk of choosing... ‘to live within the truth’. “

Writings by Orwell , Graham Greene, Stephen Spender, Vasily Grossman, Anna Akhmatova, Abram Tertz / Andrei Sinyavsky have all been added to my 2020 TBR — per his recommendation — as classics of the ‘Cold War’ period.

One might be tempted to consider a NF read of this length too dry to work ones way through , not so . White manages an absolutely splendid treatment of an incredible amount of historical material beginning in Franco’s Spain — chock full of James Bond intrigue by the guys who thought him up 🤣.

Confession: my single disappointment — the manner in which the author buried Mr Gorbachev’s complicity in a Soviet attempt to hide the Chernobyl disaster from his own people and the world. Had it not been for the Swedes’ detection of excessive radiation in the atmosphere , who knows how long the truth would have been withheld.


“A writer’s problem does not change...He himself changes but his problem remains the same. It is always how to write truly and having found what is true, to protect it in such a way that it becomes a part of the experience of the person who reads it.”

— Ernest Hemingway

[bookwormylife · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? It it a big book that has lots of content but also somehow not enough.

Duncan White managed to create a thrilling image of writers and publishers who, sometimes actively, on other occasions unwillingly, participated in the events of the Cold War. Some of the "main characters" of this book has been fighting, like Orwell or Hemingway, but many of them presented danger to one of the ideologies in the conflict just by being able to write and support or disrupt the status quo each of the sides tried to maintain.

I would say that the main idea of this book is to illustrate the power that literature, especially fiction (like Animal Farm) can hold over minds and the ideologies. The book begins with Orwell almost being killed in trenches in Spain in 1937 and ends with Solzhenitsyn, and the fall of the Soviet Union and the 90s in Post-Soviet space.

The chronology helps to keep the readers on track of the people and places but one still feels dizzy as the array of names and faces spirals down the whirlpool of history. At some points the author overindulged in name-dropping.

Overall, the book sounds more like an account of historical events and less as analysis of any sorts though. Nevertheless, it was a thrilling read!

One important addition that commenters with one star noted and I agree with them: this book still doesn't present a balanced account of advantages and disadvantages of Britain, the US, and Soviet Union. But we know hot read between the lines. At least I hope so.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to classify this book. It's not about literary analysis. It's not really a history book, either. It's not an in-depth analysis of the ideologies of the Cold War. It's a mix of all of these things, with a lot of anecdotes and biographical vignettes of writers like George Orwell, Arthur Koestler, Boris Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, Graham Greene. The background is that of the propaganda efforts waged by the USSR and the CIA, both overt and covert. I had not been aware of just how many magazines were secretly funded by the Comintern and CIA, respectively, so that was eye-opening. I appreciated the fact that both sides of the Iron Curtain were investigated. The only chapter that confused me was that about Belli, a poet of the Sandinista movement. Why was she chosen? Why was that particular movement chosen? Out of all the communist-influenced movements in the world?

I had thought it would take me a long time to get through the 700 pages in this book, but it was less dense than I had anticipated - as mentioned, large sections of it were essentially biographical sketches of selected writers, rather than jargon-laden discourses on marxism vs. leninism vs. trotskyism. So it's recommended for people with an interest of mid-20th century literature.

[Richard de Villiers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel giving 5 stars to this book is doing it a disservice. It is almost insulting actually. If you are on this site it is because you love books and this book is a book about books and the authors who wrote them. Throw into the mix the heated politics of the Cold War and you have an absolute classic. What White does is remarkable not only do we get the story of the most remarkable writers and thinkers of the era but he does not lose site of the geopolitics behind it all giving valuable context. Following Orwell, Hemingway, McCarthy, Koestler and others around makes for an exciting enough work but White with his deft storytelling takes it to another level. White also gives and incredibly balanced account - he is not afraid to point where our literary heroes fall short. I know the length of the book my scare some people away - it shouldn't. It is easy to read this work at a breakneck pace because it reads like a novel. An absolutely fantastic book.

[Gilion Dumas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This new book examines how literature became a battlefield in the Cold War, with governments on both sides using books and authors to influence public opinion. Whether the US government was shipping pro-West books to soldiers or supporting modernist writing in the name of freedom, or the Soviet government was subsiding sympathetic writers and prosecuting dissenters, both sides engaged in a "book race" every bit as fierce as the contemporaneous arms race.

Duncan White looks at writers who directly influenced the Cold War, like George Orwell with his books Animal Farm and 1984, others like Graham Greene whose body of work spans the Cold War, a few like Vaclav Havel who were directly involved in key moments, and others less familiar but central to crucial moments in the Cold War. It is a trove of nerdy book history for Cold War literature lovers.

[Paul Dinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really, really enjoyed this study. It made me see a lot of history in a new light, and even got me to read We, and I won't hold that against it. With the rise of stateism at the end of the cold war also gave rise to the dystopian novels like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty Four, who knew this was funded in part by the CIA. Just as the Soviets tried to turn literature into propaganda for the state, the CIA was doing the same, funding literature and writers that were criticizing the USSR. It turns out both sides were involved in the same game, only the Soviets took it further. I have got to say, I didn't understand the Spanish Civil War and how much of a role the USSR played in it, to the extent of launching purges of those who fought for them against Franco, including a young George Orwell who would be forever changed by the experience.

[Darryl Ponicsan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinary book. At over 700 pps it requires a commitment, but it's well worth it to be reminded that there once was a time when people lined up to buy a novel dramatizing the corruption of governments. When did that last happen? Now it's ten-year olds waiting for, "Harry Potter and the Something or Other."

From the Spanish Civil War through WWII and Vietnam and the cold war with Russia, novelists, poets, and playwrights wrote truth to power, creating fiction that bit back, at enormous personal peril. George Orwell, Arthur Koestler, Mary McCarthy, Graham Greene, Le Carré, Solzhenitsyn and many more are profiled in courage here. Writers were both feared and used by totalitarian tyrants, paying the price of expression in poverty, imprisonment, and execution. At times it's breathtaking.

[Barry Smirnoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literature and the Cold War

I highly recommend this book. The author, who teaches history and literature at Harvard, is an excellent writer who is comfortable in addressing a huge amount of material. He discusses the Cold War in all of its permutations and the impact of literature from both sides of the Iron Curtain. Orwell, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn and Howard Fast are discussed as lynchpins of the conflicts. It begins with the rise of anti-Communism in the US after WWII, and comes to the conclusion that the current conflicts with Putin are not related to that earlier ideological contest. Great for both the casual reader and those conversant with the wide range of subject matter.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent account of authors' involvement in the Cold War, beginning with the Spanish Civil War and George Orwell and continuing through the demise of the Soviet Union with Vaclav Havel. The author does a great job of explaining the historical context without being biased for or against America; he simply presents how those who were drawn to Communism on idealistic ideological grounds found it lacking at best and horrifying in its implementation.

Having recently read "The End of the Affair" again, it was interesting to hear more about Graham Greene's history.

Although sadly we have become a culture of non-readers, perhaps artists will still be able to somehow point people to beauty, truth, and goodness in an ever-darkening world.

[Rick Fifield · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look at the Cold War through the eyes of writers and the books they wrote. American and the Soviets governments spend a lot of money to get there side heard during the Cold War and the varies purges in Russia during its early years. While one thinks of the Cold war as build ups in weapons, defense spending and the space race there was also a race to influence to influence readers about their side of the story. It is interesting to see how books played as role in this battle.. A battle for ideas played out in writing through articles, journals, magazines, books, and literary conferences on both side of the Atlantic.

[Jason Bergman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This heavily (heavily) researched book bills itself as a history of writers during the Cold War, and it is, but really that's really only half of what's here. In addition to stories about Hemingway and Le Carre and Greene and other writers during wartime, you also get a very detailed history of the Cold War itself. Just be warned, there's a LOT of ground covered, and even calling this a history of the Cold War isn't accurate, as it starts with the end of WWI and goes all the way up to the 90s. Again, heavily researched, and very detailed. Which if you're into that sort of thing (I am!) then you'll enjoy it.

[Pat Rolston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for anyone who enjoys world history and literary history. The tine frame is the 20th and 21st centuries. Amazing insight is afforded into the lives of the greatest writers on each side of the former iron curtain from England to the USA to Russia during this period.

This is a wonderfully written account of the struggle between Russia and the West from the perspective of literature. I can’t recommend it highly enough and consider it one of the finest books I have read in a long time.