How The End Begins: The Road to a Nuclear World War III

Each chapter of the How the World Ends deconstructs the dangers we face. Rosenbaum begins by showing all the ways the post-Cold War order that tried to impose a set of rules of averting a nuclear mistake has fallen apart. In chapter 2, he describes the journey of one Bruce Blair, once a missile launcher, whose experience inside the nuclear establishment left him alarmed about its vulnerabilities. Chapter 3 looks at nuclear war from the Russian side, using the architect of that nation's early warning system as a focus. Chapter 4 looks at how the Bush Administration helped pushed the world closer to a nuclear conflict by rewriting the rules of deterrence. Chapter 5 describes all the ways the international incidents we have seen - Georgia, the Israeli raid on Syria, the Iranian moves - are evidence that some governments have shown a willingness to move closer to the brink of a conflict involving nuclear weapons. The rest of the book looks at the broader nuclear issues facing the world in the 21st century: What is deterrence? Who can claim to have it? How many nuclear weapons can we live with? Is zero really possible? In other words: Can we undream the nightmare?

About the Author :
Ron Rosenbaum is the bestselling author of Explaining Hitler and The Shakespeare Wars and has written or edited six other books. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Harper's, the Atlantic, and the New Yorker. He writes a column for the New York Observer and lives in New York City.

Review :
"While the world twiddles its thumbs in the face of the possibility of nuclear devastation, Ron Rosenbaum's well argued and courageous book convincingly says: wake up! The 'end' in his title is a diabolical double entendre: the end of the world, or the end of the staggering danger of world holocaust? Rosenbaum says to humanity: choose." --Todd Gitlin, author of The Chosen Peoples and The Sixties "Ron Rosenbaum might qualify for the title of America's greatest living journalist. He is certainly a hero to an entire generation of writers. No matter the subject, Rosenbaum asks the hardest questions, draws out the most fascinating and unexpected answers, and never, ever gives up. And he has not yet written, in his long and storied career, an uninteresting sentence. When Rosenbaum gets fixed on a subject as urgent as the specter of nuclear catastrophe, he produces work that is unparalleled in the English language." --Jeffrey Goldberg, National Correspondent for The Atlantic and author of Prisoners "Ron Rosenbaum has written a Dr. Strangelove for our time. He's done the seemingly impossible: captured the way our current situation is even more terrifying, more deeply surreal. If you ever thought human beings were rational, think again." --Errol Morris, director of The Fog of War "If you think 'the atomic age' is over, read this book and shudder. Ron Rosenbaum plunges into the rabbit hole of nuclear-deterrence thinking--from the missilemen in the silos to the commanders on the lookout posts to the strategic priests turned no-nukes advocates--with infectious zest. He knows the intellectual thrill of tracing the war-gamers' logic all the way out--and the moral horror that comes from daring to look into the abyss." --Fred Kaplan, author of The Wizards of Armageddon and Slate columnist "Ron Rosenbaum might qualify for the title of America's greatest living journalist. He is certainly a hero to an entire generation of writers. No matter the subject, Rosenbaum asks the hardest questions, draws out the most fascinating and unexpected answers, and never, ever gives up. And he has not yet written, in his long and storied career, an uninteresting sentence. When Rosenbaum gets fixed on a subject as urgent as the specter of nuclear catastrophe, he produces work that is unparalleled in the English language." --Jeffrey Goldberg, National Correspondent for The Atlantic and author of Prisoners "If you think 'the atomic age' is over, read this book and shudder. Ron Rosenbaum plunges into the rabbit hole of nuclear-deterrence thinking--from the missilemen in the silos to the commanders on the lookout posts to the strategic priests turned no-nukes advocates--with infectious zest. He knows the intellectual thrill of tracing the war-gamers' logic all the way out--and the moral horror that comes from daring to look into the abyss." --Fred Kaplan, author of The Wizards of Armageddon and Slate columnist "Ron Rosenbaum takes on the subject of how Armageddon might come: not because of divine intervention but because of the endemic incompetence of the human species. Rosenbaum tells this story with his characteristic mix of shoe-leather reporting, deep analysis, and elegant writing." --Peter Bergen, author of The Longest War and The Osama bin Laden I Know "When Rosenbaum turns to the Middle East...he hits his stride...How the End Begins raises fundamental questions more acutely than dozens of other recent books on the nuclear problem. There is much to learn from it." Scotsman, April 2011