With a gripping narrative, author Sheinkin describes the Cold War’s arms race and the space race, first dropping the reader into the streets of Brooklyn. There a spy’s meticulously crafted device finds its way into the hands of a teenage boy.
From the local to the global, Sheinkin brings alive the competition between the United States and Soviet Russia and invites us to experience suspense at the brink of global nuclear destruction - a chess game played by JFK and Nikita Kruschev.
Hearty backmatter includes source notes, an extensive bibliography, acknowledgements, image credits, and an index. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber