Illustrated throughout with photographs, ephemera, advertising material etc., this book takes a nostalgic look at the magic moments and turbulent times of the 50s and 60s in the UK — with reminiscences from celebrated figures of the day. Covers life, leisure, music, drugs, the media, style etc., etc. Great for spicing up a project on either decade.
Level: C+/Library/Depot

This impressive book was published to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the start of the Cold War. It is a graphic account of this long-running global drama, which encompassed moments of high tension, such as the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and the nuclear alerts of 1973 and 1983. At times the world stood on the brink of nuclear Armageddon, but these dangerous moments all ended with both sides drawing back, until the long confrontation ended peacefully. Written by a leading American defence analyst, Dr Norman Friedman, and including a DVD of several classic US public information films from the era, The Cold War Experience contains 30 facsimile items of memorabilia (where necessary translated into English at the end of the book) in special pockets. Re-live history by examining maps, diaries, letters and other items which, up till now, have remained filed or exhibited in the Imperial War Museum and other museum collections in Northern Europe and America.
Contents: Introduction; A Failed Peace; The Iron Curtain; The Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, NATO; The Berlin Airlift; China and De-Colonization; McCarthyism; Korea: The Cold War Becomes a Military Struggle; Why The War Never Became Hot: The Bomb; Explosions in Europe: Poland & the GDR Uprising; Explosions in Europe: The Hungarian Uprising; Secret Services: East; Secret Services: West; Missiles, Sputnik, and the H-Bomb; Cuba: Bay of Pigs; The Berlin Wall; Cuban Missile Crisis; Vietnam; The Prague Spring; Detente: The Peak of Soviet Power; Afghanistan; Dissidents; Poland; President Reagan's Offensive; Living with the Bomb; Gorbachev: A Man to Do Business With; The Wall Comes Down; Revolutions in Eastern Europe; Fall of the Soviet Union; Index/memorabilia translations.
A magnificent large-format boxed hardback.
Level: Gymnasiet etc./A teacher's resource for use in projects on the The Cold War, for instance co-operation with History–Danish–Russian/Library/Depot

This is a relaunch of Raymond Briggs' classic strip cartoon. Jim Bloggs and Hilda are a simple, innocent old married couple with a resolute faith in "the powers that be". This misplaced trust remains unshaken even after these same powers have involved them in a cataclysmic nuclear war. They remain determined to do everything the government tells them, following the contradictory and useless advice in their 'Protect And Survive' leaflets to the letter. The instructions they follow are based on real leaflets distributed to the British public in the early 1980s. The couple haplessly attempt to construct a shelter made of cushions and doors placed "at 60 degrees to a wall" and gather together emergency supplies consisting of ginger nuts, a Christmas pud, and a tin of pineapple chunks. "It'll take more than a few bombs to bring me down," says Hilda and the two go about their preparations with determined good humour, even managing to remain stoical after the bombs have gone off and the fallout starts to kill them. Their touching affection and optimism, combined with their failures to understand the horror of their situation produce a rare grim and satirical humour and a monument to human values in the face of inhumanity. The film is available on DVD (see below). (27.8 standard pages)
Level: C+