I liked Annie Jacobsen's Nuclear War: A Scenario because it delves into the terrifying possibility of a nuclear conflict in today's world. The story begins with a nuclear explosion near Washington D.C., and the intensity never lets up from there. I appreciated her meticulous research and investigative skills, and Jacobsen paints a disturbingly realistic picture of what such an event would entail.
Sitting in my reading room, I couldn't help the feeling that I was a missileer stationed in a control center deep in the heart of North Dakota missile field. As I read her book, she seamlessly mixed intense drama with intricate technical descriptions that kept me on the edge of my seat. I was so captivated by her writing that I almost felt like I needed to turn a key and launch a Minuteman III missile myself.
Most important, her writing remains accessible and engaging despite the complexâŚ
Wow! In this historical novel, Labatut has developed a totally original structure and writing style. I had barely heard of the polymath John von Neumann, but each aspect of math and science that he touched was indelibly changed forever. Programmable computers, artificial intelligence, you name it. Science, for better and for worse â a stroke of genius, then again, madness. Logic led von Neumann to the theory for nuclear deterrence of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). And the policymakers listened. Labatut builds his story solely through the eyes of those who knew John, whether family, friends, colleagues, or rivals. This novel is a tour-de-force that raises questions about science as it simultaneously furthers and threatens existence.
From the author of When We Cease to Understand the World: a dazzling, kaleidoscopic book about the destructive chaos lurking in the history of computing and AIJohnny von Neumann was an enigma. As a young man, he stunned those around him with his monomaniacal pursuit of the unshakeable foundations of mathematics. But when his faith in this all-encompassing system crumbled, he began to put his prodigious intellect to use for those in power. As he designed unfathomable computer systems and aided the development of the atomic bomb, his work pushed increasingly into areas that were beyond human comprehension and controlâŚ
My graduating class in high school once designated me as âthe most likely to start a feminist revolution.â That was a lot to live up to, but Iâve made a very small stab at it by writing about women who have changed our world. I love to bring awareness about the contributions great women have made in history, but I also want modern women to see themselves in these struggles. I always say that Historical Fiction is an exercise of empathy, and I hope my work encourages women today to get involved and make a difference in the world, too.
As the daughter of one of the last children to contract polio before the vaccines, I knew this was going to be an important book even before I opened it.
But it was also a page-turning chronicle of Dr. Dorothy Horstmann, a pioneer in the battle to eradicate polio. I was often infuriated by what she faced as a woman in science during the 1950s; it was a very good read that brought much-needed attention to this extraordinary womanâs gifts to medical science.
"Huge applause... women have always been in scienceâdespite those who would pretend otherwise.â --Bonnie Garmus, New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
She gave up everything â and changed the world.
A riveting novel based on the true story of the woman who stopped a pandemic, from the bestselling author of Mrs. Poe.
In 1940s and â50s America, polio is as dreaded as the atomic bomb. No oneâs life is untouched by this disease that kills or paralyzes its victims, particularly children. Outbreaks of the virus across the country regularly put American cities in lockdown. Some of theâŚ
#1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva is back with an electrifying new thriller.
Legendary art restorer and spy Gabriel Allon joins forces with a brilliant and beautiful master-thief to track down the world's most valuable missing painting but soon finds himself in a desperate race to prevent an unthinkable conflict between Russia and the West.
Even before recently becoming a dad, I was passionate about reducing the risks of nuclear war. I am also firmly committed to pursuingâyet never fully knowingâthe answers when it comes to achieving that. I think that trying to figure out why things happened as they did in the Cold War can sometimes help illuminate partial answers. The late Michael Krepon referred to the period 1985â1992 as the high tide of nuclear agreements and risk reduction, and I retain optimism that it can happen again. Deterrence is equally important. I have spent the past decade working on historical projects covering national security and negotiating sides of the Cold War equation.
I love this book because it tells the story of individuals working on a complicated and unprecedented problem. In December 1991, an independent Ukraine suddenly became the state with the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world. What should its leaders do? Forever after, political scientists have debated a question in the abstract: âShould Ukraine keep its nukesâ?
After Russiaâs partial invasion in 2014 and full-out invasion in 2022, the question was, âShould Ukraine have kept its nukes?â And Budjeryn does a fantastic job demonstrating how the reality was far more complicated than that framing. It was a messy path to the 1992 Lisbon Protocol and 1994 Budapest Memorandum, by which Ukraine joined the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the 1991 START agreement.
Budjeryn focuses on the human element and an era of uncertainty. I commend this book to anyone who concludes from Russiaâs brutality in Ukraine: this is aâŚ
The collapse of the Soviet Union unleashed the specter of the largest wave of nuclear proliferation in history. Why did Ukraine ultimately choose the path of nuclear disarmament?
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left its nearly 30,000 nuclear weapons spread over the territories of four newly sovereign states: Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine. This collapse cast a shadow of profound ambiguity over the fate of the world's largest arsenal of the deadliest weapons ever created. In Inheriting the Bomb, Mariana Budjeryn reexamines the history of nuclear predicament caused by the Soviet collapse and the subsequentâŚ