It wasn't until Canadian teams started losing in international tournaments in the mid 1950s that an epic hockey rivalry between Canada and the Soviet Union began. Canadians believed hockey was
"their game." So Canadians were in for a rude awakening when they lost Game One of the 1972 Summit Series to the Soviets. The eight-game tournament quickly became a "war on ice" fuelled by
competing Cold War ideologies. Hockey fans will enjoy reading about: small-town teams that represented Canada in international tournaments before there was a Team Canada; Father David Bauer and the first National Hockey Team; the birth of Hockey Canada; Canada and the Cold War; Canadian style of play in hockey versus the Russian style of play; and Bobby Clarke's dirty slash on Kharlamov.

Richard Brignall is a freelance writer, former newspaper sport reporter, based in Kenora, Ontario. He has over 130 articles published in magazines like Cottage Life and Outdoor Canada. He helped originate the Recordbooks series at James Lorimer and Company. This series focuses on Canadian sports history and issues like race, gender, disability, and poverty. He has written seven books for this series. Titles include Small Town Glory about the Kenora Thistles winning the Stanley Cup, Forever Champions about the Edmonton Grads women’s basketball team, Big League Dreams about black baseball player Fergie Jenkins, and China Clipper about Chinese-Canadian football player Norm Kwong. 

Richard Brignall's profile page

• Commended, One of the Year's Best for 2011 - Resource Links

"...well-written, well-suited to the intended audience and ideal for recreational reading...The sidebars dealing with politics give a brief history of the relations between the Soviet Bloc and the West during the post Second World War period. This is accurate and interesting and useful to young readers who may never have heard of Communism or the Soviet Union. They should provoke some interesting questions....his style is perfect for the targetted audience."

CM: Canadian Review fo Materials

"Not only was Summit Series a lesson in Canadian hockey history, it was a lesson in Cold War history. Like many of the books in the RecordBooks series, Brignall and his editors used text boxes to call out interesting information as well as to explain less familiar concepts."

thehockeywriters.com

"... a good introduction for new generations of fans looking to learn about one of hockey's most important events."

hockeybookreviews.com

"The writing is accessible for intermediate level students but the text would also be a good starting point for high school assignments dealing with identity/heritage in 20th century courses."

Canadian Teacher

Rated E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
Lorimer's non-fiction series Recordbooks is designed to help reluctant readers understand history and social issues through the lens of an actual sports hero. The hero in this case is hockey...
This book is a well-paced and deceptively informative read and need not restrict itself to those who are reluctant readers.

Resource Links