U.S. and Them: The Re-Enchantment of a Cold War Childhood

In this memoir of growing up in the 1960s Cold War Patricia Bjorklund narrates a girlhood filled with John Birch Society activism racial tensions concepts of sin and hell and the ominous and omnipresent fears of nuclear apocalypse--and conversely the glowing redemptive powers of hope and happiness.The naïveté and paranoia of the Cold War years are perfectly rendered in Patricia Bjorklunds irresistible memoir of a working-class Connecticut childhood. Khrushchev is plotting Communism is menacing the traditional Catholic mass is changing and her pretty patriotic white mom is wearing a wire and infiltrating the Black Panthers in a flip and a miniskirt. Amid all this turmoil Patricia navigates girlhood and adolescence with a loyal heart an observant eye and a sarcastic wit. If you grew up in the Cold War era youll love this book for the memories it rekindles--and if you didnt it will make you wish youd been there. --Evelyn Somers. Associate Editor The Missouri Review