The Abyss: Nuclear Crisis Cuba 1962

Bestselling author Max Hastings offers a welcome re-evaluation of one of the most gripping and tense international events in modern history--the Cuban Missile Crisis--providing a people-focused narrative that explores the attitudes and conduct of Russians, Cubans, Americans, and a terrified world that followed each moment as it unfolded.

In The Abyss, Max Hastings turns his focus to one of the most terrifying events of the mid-twentieth century--the thirteen days in October 1962 when the world stood on the brink of nuclear war. Hastings looks at the conflict with fresh eyes, focusing on the people at the heart of the crisis--America President John F. Kennedy, Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, and a host of their advisors.

Combining in-depth research with Hasting's well-honed insights, The Abyss is a human history that unfolds on a wide, colorful canvas. As the action moves back and forth from Moscow to Washington, DC, to Havana, Hastings seeks to explain, as much as to describe, the attitudes and conduct of the Soviets, Cubans, and Americans, and to recreate the tension and heightened fears of countless innocent bystanders whose lives hung in the balance. Reflecting on the outcome of these events, he reveals how the aftermath of this momentous crisis continues to reverberate today.

Powerful, and riveting, filled with compelling detail and told with narrative flair, The Abyss is history at its finest.

Author: Max Hastings
Publisher: Harper
Published: 10/18/2022
Pages: 576
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.76lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.36w x 1.81d
ISBN: 9780062980137


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 05/01/2022 pg. 15
Publishers Weekly 08/08/2022
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2022
Library Journal 09/02/2022 pg. 1
Booklist 09/15/2022 pg. 11
Shelf Awareness 10/28/2022