School Library Journal Review

Gr 7 Up-Narrated by Liev Schrieber, this captivating documentary about Soviet espionage in the United States during and after World War II includes interviews with noted historians, authors, nuclear physicists. and relatives of former spies. According to information only recently made public, convicted spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg did not cause the most damage. It is estimated that there were over 300 spies employed by the Soviets, and only about 100 have ever been identified. Some spies worked at Los Alamos, Mexico, uncovering and transmitting classified information that enabled the Soviets to build their own atomic bomb. Others worked in almost every U.S. government agency including the State, Justice, and Treasury Departments, as well as the OSS, the precursor to the CIA. Messages were often transmitted to the Soviet Union by telegraph in code. An interesting segment discusses the complex steps American linguists had to use in order to interpret one tiny word in a document. The FBI had many spies under surveillance, but they were unable to arrest and prosecute them due to lack of evidence. This fascinating production, with all the ingredients of a good spy novel, would be helpful in any modern European, Russian, or U.S. history class.-Pat Bender, The Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.