Mayday (ePub)

Michael Beschloss is a historian and the New York Times-bestselling author of nine books, including Kennedy and Roosevelt: The Uneasy Alliance (1980); Mayday: Eisenhower, Khrushchev, and the U-2 Affair (1986); The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960-1963 (1991); The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman, and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany (2002); and Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989 (2007). Born in Chicago and educated at Williams College and Harvard University, Beschloss is a contributor to NBC News, PBS NewsHour, and the New York Times, and has been called "the nation's leading presidential historian" by Newsweek. He lives with his wife in Washington, DC.

“A fascinating reconstruction . . . Part thriller and part political history . . . Mr. Beschloss has done an excellent job of asking good questions, digging for answers whenever he could and making his way through the shoals of complexity and contradiction.” —The New York Times Book Review
 
“Mayday has it all, and it really comes back to life. . . . This may be one of the best stories yet written about just how those grand men of diplomacy and intrigue conducted our business.” —Time
 
“The definitive book on the U-2 incident . . . A genuine page-turner with important lessons for major governments in an age of instant crises.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
“[Beschloss] has told us more than anyone else so far, and told it with clarity and intelligence. . . . His grand narrative is crowded with well-drawn portraits. It is fascinating to follow great figures moving from headlines into history books.” —Naomi Bliven, The New Yorker
 
“Beschloss’s subtle, understanding portraits of Eisenhower and Khrushchev, and his grasp of the interplay between accident and misunderstanding, give his book the tragic dimensions of a Hardy or Tolstoy novel. It also has the power and precision of classic contemporary history.” —Godfrey Hodgson, The Independent
 
“He has accomplished the difficult task of making a work of scholarship read like a novel.” —James Bamford, The Washington Post
 
“Absorbing and magnificently researched . . . Mayday is one of the most engrossing books ever written on Cold War history.” —Professor Walter LaFeber, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists