The CIA Book Club: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature

"A story as fascinating as it is undersung . . . a riveting account" (The New York Times Book Review, Best Books of 2025 So Far) of the CIA's secret program to smuggle millions of books through the Iron Curtain during the Cold War

"Brimming with poetic detail, spring-loaded with tradecraft, English's account feels like it's torn from the pages of Ian Fleming. . . . An indelible reminder that words matter, and that perhaps the most patriotic thing one can do is read."--The Washington Post

For nearly five decades after the Second World War, the Iron Curtain divided Europe, forming the longest and most heavily guarded border on earth. No physical combat would take place along this frontier: the risk of nuclear annihilation was too high for that. Instead, the war was fought psychologically. It was a battle for hearts, minds, and intellects. Few understood this more clearly than George Minden, head of a covert intelligence operation known as the "CIA book program," which aimed to undermine Soviet censorship and inspire revolt by offering different visions of thought and culture.

From its Manhattan headquarters, Minden's "book club" secretly sent ten million banned titles into the East. Volumes were smuggled aboard trucks and yachts, dropped from balloons, hidden aboard trains, and stowed in travelers' luggage. Nowhere were the books welcomed more warmly than in Poland, where they would circulate covertly among circles of like-minded readers, quietly making the case against Soviet communism. Such was the demand for Minden's texts that dissidents began to reproduce them in the underground. By the late 1980s, illicit literature was so pervasive in Poland that censorship broke down: the Iron Curtain soon followed.

Charlie English narrates this tale of Cold War spycraft, smuggling, and secret printing operations for the first time, highlighting the work of a handful of extraordinary people who fought for intellectual freedom--people like Miroslaw Chojecki, who suffered beatings, imprisonment, and exile in pursuit of his clandestine mission. The CIA Book Club is a story about the power of the printed word as a means of resistance and liberation. Books, it shows, can set you free.

Author: Charlie English
Publisher: Random House
Published: 07/01/2025
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.40lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.30w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780593447901


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 03/01/2025 pg. 12
Kirkus Reviews 05/01/2025
Shelf Awareness 06/28/2025
Booklist 06/01/2025 pg. 18
BookPage 07/01/2025
Publishers Weekly 07/21/2025

About the Author
Charlie English is a former journalist for The Guardian, where he held several positions including arts editor and head of international news. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the author of three previous books, The Gallery of Miracles and Madness, The Storied City, and The Snow Tourist, he has traveled and reported widely around the globe. Charlie English lives in London with his family.