One of the most enduring and prolific American authors of the latter half of the 20th century, John Updike has long been recognized by critics for his importance as a social commentator. "John Updike and the Cold War" examines how Updike's views grew out of the defining element of American society in his time - the Cold War. D. Quentin Miller argues that because Updike's career began as the Cold War was taking shape in the mid-1950s, the world he creates in his entire literary oeuvre - fiction, poetry and nonfiction prose - reflects the optimism and the anxiety of that decade.