The Foreign Service Journal, November 2022

30 NOVEMBER 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL to Herbert Yardley, in addition to comprehensive primary sources, glossary of terms, and abbreviations list. Former CIA Deputy Director and Acting Director Michael Morell asserts: “ Need to Know is the most thorough and detailed history available on the origins of U.S. intelligence.” Says Library Journal : “Based on extensive primary research, this striking and compelling account should be read by anybody interested in the development of U.S. intelligence agencies and special operations during World War II.” Nicholas Reynolds, a historian and former CIA agent, grew up in the Foreign Service. His father, retired FSOGeorge Edward Reynolds, served from 1945 to 1974; his mother, Ilona V. Reynolds, was a Foreign Service National working in the legation in Budapest in 1947. Reynolds is also the author of the bestseller Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy: Ernest Hemingway’s Secret Adventures, 1935-1961 (HarperCollins, 2017). Ukraine’s Revolt, Russia’s Revenge Christopher M. Smith, Brookings Institution Press, 2022, $39.99/ hardcover, e-book available, 384 pages. Chris Smith was serving at U.S. Embassy Kyiv when the Euromaidan protests broke out. The anti-corruption and pro–European Union protests of 2013- 2014 culminated in the ouster of the Russian-leaning leader of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych. Russia’s seizure of Crimea followed, and soon the two nations were at war in the Donbas. Smith’s unique account of these events is a mixture of high policy and street-level politics. He offers accounts of the embassy’s reporting and observations as developments were unfolding in real time, highlighting the valuable role of diplomats posted on the front lines of history-making events. Struggles of truth versus lies, pro-democracy versus pro-authoritarian forces, and competing nationalisms characterized the interplay between Russian and Ukrainian interests then, as they do today. In this sense, the book is a firsthand look at the modern origins of the crisis that erupted with the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and points to how the broader conflict grew from festering disagreements on the future of the Ukrainian nation. Christopher M. Smith is a career U.S. Foreign Service officer who is currently posted at the National Defense University. He has served in Estonia, Lesotho, China, Ukraine, and Washington, D.C. Saint Johnsbury Vermont Images Lawrence Dolan, independently published, 2021, $12.95/paperback, print only, 82 pages. The county seat of Caledonia County, Saint Johnsbury, Vermont, is a quaint riverside town surrounded by hills and greenery. Originally established in the late 1700s, Saint Johnsbury was once an important railroad junction and center of the Connecticut Valley’s machine tool industry. Saint Johnsbury Vermont Images takes the reader on a visual tour of the area from 1890 to 1920, the town’s “heyday,” through an antique postcard collection that includes both photographs and illustrations. Commercial and residential views—for example, the power and pumping station, the Fairbanks Scale Factory, and scenic viewpoints from the edge of town—are all presented. Tourism remains an important part of the Saint Johnsbury economy, and author Lawrence Dolan compiled this collection to support those establishments catering to that trade. Lawrence Dolan is a retired Foreign Service officer who designed and managed education programs throughout Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Africa with USAID. His interest in Saint Johnsbury’s history and development stems from being an urban planner by training. He currently resides in Saint Johnsbury, where he is a member of the town’s Planning Commission. Iranian Immigration to Israel: History and Voices, in the Shadow of Kings Ali L. Ezzatyar, Routledge, 2022, $160/hardcover, e-book available, 250 pages. A demographic often oversimplified in the public sphere, Iranian Jews and their descendants make up a sizable portion of today’s Israeli population and have a rich, unique history that tends to be overshadowed by association with the broad mizrahim , or Middle Eastern Jewish population. Ali L. Ezzatyar demystifies the migration patterns, revolutionary events, and cultural distinctions of the Iranian Jewish commu- nity from biblical periods through the present in this, his latest book.