The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War

From the author of the classic The Wizards of Armageddon and Pulitzer Prize finalist comes the definitive history of American policy on nuclear war--and Presidents' actions in nuclear crises--from Truman to Trump.Fred Kaplan, hailed by The New York Times as "a rare combination of defense intellectual and pugnacious reporter," takes us into the White House Situation Room, the Joint Chiefs of Staff's "Tank" in the Pentagon, and the vast chambers of Strategic Command to bring us the untold stories--based on exclusive interviews and previously classified documents--of how America's presidents and generals have thought about, threatened, broached, and just barely avoided nuclear war from the dawn of the atomic age until today. Kaplan's historical research and deep reporting will stand as the permanent record of politics. Discussing theories that have dominated nightmare scenarios from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Kaplan presents the unthinkable in terms of mass destruction and demonstrates how the nuclear war reality will not go away, regardless of the dire consequences.

About the Author :
Fred Kaplan is the national-security columnist for Slate and the author of six books, including the bestselling The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He has also written many articles on politics and culture for the New York Times, Washington Post, New York magazine, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and other publications. He graduated from Oberlin College and has a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Review :
"Fred Kaplan is the world's preeminent Dr. Strangelove-whisperer, and The Bomb is the smartest, most riveting, and up-to-date history of how US leaders, military and civilian, have thought the unthinkable. The chapter on Trump and nuclear weapons is nothing less than alarming." -- "Timothy Naftali, author of George H.W. Bush and co-author of Khrushchev's Cold War" "In The Bomb, Fred Kaplan has delivered a timely, lively, highly readable account of how presidents from Truman to Trump have prepared for nuclear war--a history that is as deeply informed as it is utterly alarming." -- "Steve Coll, New York Times bestselling author" "Kaplan provides a rich, and surprisingly entertaining, history of how nuclear weapons and strategy have shaped the United States military and also the country's foreign policy." -- "New York Times Book Review"