The Cuban Missile Crisis: The Cold War Goes Hot (Monumental Milestones: Great Events of Modern Times)

Jim Whiting

ISBN 10: 1584154047 ISBN 13: 9781584154044

Publisher: Mitchell Lane Publishers, 2005

Synopsis

The United States and the Soviet Union were the two main nations that defeated Nazi Germany in World War II. Yet their systems of government were completely different. These differences soon developed into the Cold War. Both sides became bitter enemies. But there was no actual fighting. That situation nearly changed in 1961. The Soviets secretly installed missiles with nuclear warheads in Cuba. These missiles could reach many cities in the United States. When President John F. Kennedy learned about these weapons, he confronted Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. The world teetered on the brink of a nuclear war. This is the story of that chilling event.

About this title

About the Author

Jim Whiting has been a remarkably versatile and accomplished journalist, writer, editor and photographer for more than 30 years. A voracious reader since early childhood, Mr. Whiting has written and edited about 200 non-fiction children’s books. His subjects range from authors to zoologists and include contemporary pop icons and classical musicians, saints and scientists, emperors and explorers. Representative titles include The Life and Times of Franz Liszt, The Life and Times of Julius Caesar, Charles Schulz, James Watt and the Steam Engine, and Juan Ponce de Leon. Other career highlights are a lengthy stint publishing Northwest Runner, the first piece of original fiction to appear in Runners World magazine, hundreds of descriptions and venue photographs for America Online, e-commerce product writing, sports editor for the Bainbridge Island Review, light verse in a number of magazines and acting as the official photographer for the Antarctica Marathon. He lives in Washington state with his wife and two teenage sons.

Reviews

Grade 5-7-These titles make first-rate alternatives to the numerous same-topic volumes available for this audience. Supported by frequent, relevant photographs and maps, as well as generous lists of recent and classic multimedia resources, both books combine absorbing narratives with sharp cause-and-effect analyses. Seeing the Cuban missile crisis as a gambit rooted in Khrushchev's belief that Kennedy wasn't very tough, Whiting describes the tense diplomatic back-and-forthing in detail (during which Kennedy does come off as indecisive), then closes with a poker-faced note about the fact that Castro has outlasted every other world leader of his day. In Pearl Harbor, the author not only covers the attack in detail, but he also highlights a series of turning points-from Matthew Perry's electrifying 19th-century visit to Tokyo to five of the most decisive moments in the history of warfare during the battle of Midway, which also turned the tide of the war in the Pacific. Single-page sidelights illuminate such historical byways as the brief, seldom mentioned takeover of a tiny Hawaiian island by a downed Japanese pilot, further broadening the appeal of these well-founded assignment titles.-John Peters, New York Public Library
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Edition details

• Publisher: Mitchell Lane Publishers
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1584154047
• ISBN 13: 9781584154044
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 48