Spies, bombs and the race to the Moon · 8 stories
The Cold War
Forty years on the brink, and the lines everyone still quotes.
Phrases you’ll meet
- An iron curtain
- Eyeball to eyeball
- One small step
Journey 1 · 1905 to 1939
The Roots
An empire falls in eight days, a sealed train crosses Germany, and a German democracy votes itself out of existence.
By the end of it, you can tell why there were two sides at all, and how a democracy can vote and deal itself out of existence.
Journey 2 · 1945 to 1954
Dividing the World
Three men carve up the peace, a bomb changes everything, and a senator waves a list nobody gets to read.
By the end of it, you can tell where the iron curtain came from, and why the spies were real but the list was not.
Journey 3 · 1959 to 1963
The Brink
A wall goes up in one night, and thirteen days in October bring the world closer to nuclear war than ever.
By the end of it, you can tell who really blinked in October 1962, and whether Kennedy called himself a doughnut.
Journey 4 · 1957 to 1975
The Race
A beeping ball, a carpenter's son in orbit, and a promise to reach the Moon before the decade is out.
By the end of it, you can tell why Moscow won most of the firsts, and the word Armstrong may have dropped.
Journey 5 · 1980 to 1991
The End
A reactor explodes in silence, a union rises in a shipyard, a wall opens without a shot, and a superpower votes itself out of existence.
By the end of it, you can tell how forty years of standoff ended almost without a battle.
