In the Shadow of Fear - by Nick Bunker (Hardcover)

About the Book

"At the midpoint of the twentieth century, Sir Winston Churchill called the United States "this gigantic capitalist organization, with its vast and superabundant productive power." The dollar reigned supreme and Pittsburgh and Detroit were at the summit of their power and prestige. From Washington, American statesmen sought to guide the destiny of nations. Victorious in the elections of 1948, Harry Truman and the leaders of the Democratic Party hoped to use the country's economic might to build on Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. And then-in the space of ten crowded months, between the fall of 1949 and the summer of 1950-America witnessed a series of dramatic and far-reaching events that sent the country spiraling into anxiety, uncertainty, and deep paranoia. In In the Shadow of Fear, award-winning historian Nick Bunker offers a compelling and richly-textured portrait of the months when the "long 1930s" finally ended and the Cold War took hold. In September 1949, it was revealed that the Soviet Union had exploded an atomic bomb, and Mao's army swept through China. In America, the age of FDR faded as an aggressive Republican Party, desperate to regain power, seized on rifts among its opponents, and President Truman's program for universal health care and civil rights went down to defeat. The young Senator Joe McCarthy first charged that the State Department was packed with communists, ambushing Truman and his colleagues with a style of politics that aroused powerful emotions and deepened division. A new mood of anger in the nation left many Americans calling in vain for a return to consensus. And then, in June 1950, the Korean War began, and the Cold War started in earnest. It was in this pivotal period, Bunker shows, that we can locate the beginnings of America's unprecedented postwar economic expansion; the dawning of the Taiwan question; the origins of America's involvement in Vietnam; and the birth of NATO, the hydrogen bomb, and of what would become the European Union. In his arresting chronicle of domestic and foreign politics at the turn of the decade, Bunker reveals a nation divided, outmaneuvered by its adversaries, and potentially facing the end of its supremacy on the world stage. With a novelist's eye for detail and anecdote, Bunker recounts the machinations of familiar characters like Truman, Stalin, and Mao alongside those of people prominent at the time, but now largely forgotten: the labor leader John L. Lewis, 'Mister Republican' Senator Bob Taft, McCarthy's foe Margaret Chase Smith, the fallible New York mayor William J. O'Dwyer, and many others. A striking and vividly rendered account of America on the brink, In the Shadow of Fear offers unmatched insight into a period much like our own, when the nation confronted mounting political crises at home and abroad"--

Book Synopsis

An evocative portrait of a divided America at the dawn of the Cold War

Halfway through the twentieth century, the United States towered over the world in industrial might. After winning the 1948 election, Harry Truman hoped to use this economic strength to build on FDR's achievements with new liberal reforms. But then, in just ten months between September 1949 and June 1950, the president's ambitions were overtaken by events that left the country gripped by rage and fear. The Soviets tested an atomic bomb, Mao's army swept through China, and at home Truman faced labor unrest and a Republican Party desperate for power.

In the Shadow of Fear is an innovative and gripping history of this pivotal moment. Recounting the launch of Senator Joe McCarthy's anti-communist crusade, the defeat of Truman's liberal program, and the start of the Korean War, prizewinning historian Nick Bunker shows us a polarized nation facing crises at home and abroad--a story with deep resonances today.

Review Quotes

"An illuminating take on 20th-century American history."
--Publishers Weekly

"Based on extensive primary research, this highly readable account highlights these critical months when the U.S. enjoyed its prosperity, and part of the world descended into violence. An important read for those interested in postwar American history, both domestic and abroad."
--Library Journal (starred review)

"Only in 1950 did the 1930s reach their true conclusion," argues Nick Bunker in In the Shadow of Fear, his account of a divisive era that rhymes eerily with our own. Bunker charts the months leading up to the Cold War not only through political players but by way of thinkers, films, literature, and feats of industry, pausing his narrative for periodic trips around the globe. He writes always with a keen eye and a graceful pen; this is the rich, original, and immersive story of America at a crossroads."
--Stacy Schiff, New York Times-bestselling author of The Revolutionary

"A vivid look at a pivotal year at the beginning of the Cold War...Great history of a dismal period."
--Kirkus (starred review)

"A page-turning narrative, Nick Bunker's In the Shadow of Fear tells the story of America at the peak of its power and yet insecure. With his genius for the telling detail, his insight into personality, and his grasp of the arc of history, Bunker again proves himself a master storyteller."
--Frank Costigliola, author of Kennan: A Life between Worlds

"A brilliant book, immersing us in the world of the year 1950, when the so-called 'wise men' who were then constructing the America-dominated post‒World War II era were confused fools stumbling in the dark, terrified."
--J. Bradford DeLong, New York Times-bestselling author of Slouching Towards Utopia

About the Author

Nick Bunker won the 2015 George Washington Book Prize with An Empire on the Edge, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History. His other books include Making Haste from Babylon, which was long listed for the UK's Samuel Johnson Prize, and Young Benjamin Franklin.