As the Second World War ended, America woke up to realise it was the most powerful nation on earth, primarily because it was the only one with nuclear weapons. But then, in 1949, the Soviet Union detonated its own atomic bomb. Humanity was forced to consider the possibility of its complete extinction. American humans in particular were seized by paranoia.

In the decade after the Soviet bomb exploded, some former Yale students started Monocle, a satirical political magazine inspired by the wild ideas in the air. The mag only lasted until 1965 but, in one sense, it was the most influential publication there has ever been. This crew of merry pranksters, led by Victor Navasky, had the bright idea of commissioning a would-be author named Leonard Lewin to write a parodic report intended to read as if it had emerged from the dark recesses of the deep state. 

It was called Report from Iron Mountain and it was published by the Dial Press in 1967. It was said to have been written by a ‘Special Study Group’ hidden away in a cavern in Iron Mountain, New York. Its argument was as simple as it was insane: only