Patriotic Pick for May 2023
“One Minute to Midnight”
by Michael Dobbs
Whether it’s via their tone, topic, or tenor, certain works just say “America.” Here is one such title, suggested by Kathy Cannon Wiechman, winner of the inaugural Grateful American Book Prize for Like a River: A Civil War Novel:
One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War by Michael Dobbs. “The title refers to the doomsday clock, and the book gives a detailed, minute-by-minute look into the Cuban Missile Crisis from American, Soviet, and Cuban perspectives,” says Wiechman. “I found it fascinating and informative, and in retrospect, a bit scary learning how close we came to nuclear war in October 1962. Considering the current crisis in Ukraine, it’s also a very timely read.”
Patriotic Picks is a monthly feature in partnership with the Washington Independent Review of Books.