Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety
by Schlosser, Eric
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- ISBN 10
- 1594202273
- ISBN 13
- 9781594202278
- Seller
-
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
A myth-shattering exposé of America’s nuclear weapons Famed investigative journalist Eric Schlosser digs deep to uncover secrets about the management of America’s nuclear arsenal. A groundbreaking account of accidents, near misses, extraordinary heroism, and technological breakthroughs, Command and Control explores the dilemma that has existed since the dawn of the nuclear age: How do you deploy weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them? That question has never been resolvedand Schlosser reveals how the combination of human fallibility and technological complexity still poses a grave risk to mankind. While the harms of global warming increasingly dominate the news, the equally dangerous yet more immediate threat of nuclear weapons has been largely forgotten. Written with the vibrancy of a first-rate thriller, Command and Control interweaves the minute-by-minute story of an accident at a nuclear missile silo in rural Arkansas with a historical narrative that spans more than fifty years. It depicts the urgent effort by American scientists, policy makers, and military officers to ensure that nuclear weapons can’t be stolen, sabotaged, used without permission, or detonated inadvertently. Schlosser also looks at the Cold War from a new perspective, offering history from the ground up, telling the stories of bomber pilots, missile commanders, maintenance crews, and other ordinary servicemen who risked their lives to avert a nuclear holocaust. At the heart of the book lies the struggle, amid the rolling hills and small farms of Damascus, Arkansas, to prevent the explosion of a ballistic missile carrying the most powerful nuclear warhead ever built by the United States. Drawing on recently declassified documents and interviews with people who designed and routinely handled nuclear weapons, Command and Control takes readers into a terrifying but fascinating world that, until now, has been largely hidden from view. Through the details of a single accident, Schlosser illustrates how an unlikely event can become unavoidable, how small risks can have terrible consequences, and how the most brilliant minds in the nation can only provide us with an illusion of control. Audacious, gripping, and unforgettable, Command and Control is a tour de force of investigative journalism, an eye-opening look at the dangers of America’s nuclear age.
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Black's Fine Books & Manuscripts (CA)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 2738
- Title
- Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety
- Author
- Schlosser, Eric
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition, First Printing
- ISBN 10
- 1594202273
- ISBN 13
- 9781594202278
- Publisher
- Penguin Press HC, The
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2013
- Keywords
- history; ussr; communism; politics; political theory
Terms of Sale
Black's Fine Books & Manuscripts
About the Seller
Black's Fine Books & Manuscripts
About Black's Fine Books & Manuscripts
We are a rare book firm specializing in retrospective publications with notable strengths in Antiquarian Books, Archives, Canadiana, Culinary History, Fine Bindings, Indigenous Studies, Modern Literature, Socialism, and Slavic Studies. We actively buy-and-sell rare and out-of-print books, manuscripts, printed ephemera, personal and institutional archival collections, and other rare and unusual materials here in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Our trade is conducted chiefly online or through trade catalogues. When feasible, we will travel to examine collections of interest, particularly in areas of our specialization. We are also active in conducting monetary evaluations of select individual items, and collections for university archives, museums, and private clients. With over a decade-and-a-half of experience serving institutional and private clients alike, we are pleased to offer an eclectic, ever-changing selection of over 25,000 scarce and unique titles ranging from antiquity to the present day, only a small selection of which has been made available online. Please use our intuitive search function to search for titles of interest you may search by title, author, ISBN, or keywords. Please let us know if you are unable find what you are seeking and we would be pleased to search our extensive private inventory for you, or to assist you in acquiring it.
We warmly welcome visitors; however, our Toronto and Winnipeg studios operate by appointment only. Curated lists periodically issued.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.