Lucio Magri: The Tailor of Ulm: Communism in the Twentieth Century (2009/2011)
Filed under book | Tags: · cold war, communism, history, italy, left, politics
A fascinating analysis and account of the decline and fall of Western communism by a participant observer.
Twenty years have passed since the Italian Communists’ last Congress in 1991, in which the death of their party was decreed. It was a deliberate death, accelerated by the desire for a “new beginning.” That new beginning never came, and the world lost an invaluable, complex political, organizational and theoretical heritage.
In this detailed and probing work, Lucio Magri, one of the towering intellectual figures of the Italian Left, assesses the causes for the demise of what was once one of the most powerful and vibrant communist parties of the West. The PCI marked almost a century of Italian history, from its founding in 1921 to the partisan resistance, the turning point of Salerno in 1944 to the de-Stalinization of 1956, the long ’68 to the “historic compromise,” and to the opportunity—missed forever—of democratic transformation.
With rigor and passion, The Tailor of Ulm merges an original and enlightening interpretation of Italian communism with the experience of a militant “heretic” into a riveting read—capable of broadening our insights into contemporary Italy, and the twentieth-century communist experience.
First published as Il Sarto di Ulm, il Saggiatore SPA, Milan, 2009
Translated by Patrick Camiller
Publisher Verso, 2011
ISBN 1844676986, 9781844676989
434 pages
review (Donald Sassoon, The Observer)
review (John Green, review31)
Richard J. Aldrich: GCHQ: The Uncensored Story of Britain’s Most Secret Intelligence Agency (2010)
Filed under book | Tags: · code, cold war, computing, encryption, history, intelligence agency, surveillance, technology, united kingdom
The gripping inside story of the last unknown realm of the British secret service: GCHQ (Government Communication Headquarters).
GCHQ is the successor to the famous Bletchley Park wartime code-breaking organisation and is the largest and most secretive intelligence organisation in the country. During the war, it commanded more staff than MI5 and MI6 combined and has produced a number of intelligence triumphs, as well as some notable failures. Since the end of the Cold War, it has played a pivotal role in shaping Britain’s secret state. Still, we know almost nothing about it.
In this ground-breaking new book, Richard Aldrich traces GCHQ’s evolvement from a wartime code-breaking operation based in the Bedfordshire countryside, staffed by eccentric crossword puzzlers, to one of the world leading espionage organisations. It is packed full of dramatic spy stories that shed fresh light on Britain’s role in the Cold War – from the secret tunnels dug beneath Vienna and Berlin to tap Soviet phone lines, and daring submarine missions to gather intelligence from the Soviet fleet, to the notorious case of Geoffrey Pine, one of the most damaging moles ever recruited by the Soviets inside British intelligence. The book reveals for the first time how GCHQ operators based in Cheltenham affected the outcome of military confrontations in far-flung locations such as Indonesia and Malaya, and exposes the shocking case of three GGHQ workers who were killed in an infamous shootout with terrorists while working undercover in Turkey.
Today’s GCHQ struggles with some of the most difficult issues of our time. A leading force of the state’s security efforts against militant terrorist organisations like Al-Qaeda, they are also involved in fundamental issues that will mould the future of British society. Compelling and revelatory, Aldrich’s book is the crucial missing link in Britain’s intelligence history.
Publisher HarperPress, 2010
ISBN 0007278470, 9780007278473
666 pages
review (Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian)
review (Sinclair McKay, The Telegraph)
review (Duncan Campbell, New Statesman)
review (The Economist)
Frances Stonor Saunders: The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters (1999)
Filed under book | Tags: · 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, art, cia, cold war, intelligence agency, politics
In addition to being short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award upon publication last year, Frances Stonor Saunders’s The Cultural Cold War was met with the kind of attention reserved for books that directly hit a cultural nerve. Impassioned reviews and features in major publications such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have consistently praised Saunders’s detailed knowledge of the CIA’s covert operations.
The Cultural Cold War presents for the first time shocking evidence of cultural manipulation during the Cold War. This “impressively detailed” (Kirkus Reviews) book draws together newly declassified documents and exclusive interviews to expose the CIA’s astonishing campaign wherein some of the most vocal exponents of intellectual freedom became instruments of the American government. Those involved included George Orwell, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and Gloria Steinem.
Originally published in UK as Who Paid the Piper? by Granta Publications, 1999
Publisher The New Press, New York, 2000
ISBN 156584596X
509 pages
PDF (18 MB, updated on 2014-9-14)
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