The Nuclear Age: An Epic Race for Arms, Power and Survival

'Few historians write with Serhii Plokhy’s authority, clarity or global vision... Essential reading, and a marvellous book' Peter Frankopan From the bestselling author of Chernobyl comes a sweeping history of the geopolitics behind the nuclear arms race, from the first atomic bomb to today On 16 July 1945, the Nuclear Age began with the explosion of the first atomic bomb and the words of J. Robert Oppenheimer: 'Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.' While the threat of mutually assured destruction kept a lid on a simmering and tense geopolitical landscape, events like the Chernobyl disaster and near-misses like the Cuban Missile Crisis showed that total destruction was only ever one malfunction, mistake, or miscommunication away. Now, as governments re-arm their nuclear arsenals, treaties designed to limit the acquisition and use of nuclear weapons fall away, and nuclear weapons come increasingly within reach of non-state actors, we are on the brink of a renaissance of the nuclear industry. In The Nuclear Age, acclaimed historian Serhii Plokhy paints an intricate picture of a world governed by fear. From the first artificial splitting of the atom in 1917 and the race to create the first atomic bomb in World War II, through the fraught arms race of the Cold War, to the imperialism, neo-colonial motivation and wars being waged today, the threat posed by nuclear weapons is as pertinent as ever. As he examines the motivations of key players, Plokhy confronts the crucial question of our age: what can we learn from the first nuclear arms race that can help us to stop the new one?

About the Author :
Serhii Plokhy is the author of Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy, which won the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Pushkin House Book Prize, and the New York Times bestseller The Gates of Europe. His many acclaimed books, including The Russo-Ukrainian War, Nuclear Folly and Atoms and Ashes, have been translated into over a dozen languages. He is Professor of History at Harvard University where he also serves as Director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.

Review :
The Nuclear Age moves around in time and spans most of the globe... Seeing the facts of the nuclear age laid out on the page carries its own propulsive force. And those facts will frequently leave you reeling The Nuclear Age is an encyclopaedic survey of proliferation, and essential reading for anyone who wants to know how we got to where we are Panoramic in scope and fastidious in detail... Plokhy's perfectly timed, compelling and essential book reminds us that the spectre of nuclear extinction is not a cold war nightmare but a permanent condition of modern life Serhii Plokhy’s alarming warning in The Nuclear Age evokes a range of visceral responses. The first is deep memory. For readers who lived through the last 50 years, Plokhy’s narrative will resonate as the terrifying, then hopeful, backdrop to our lives... It also provokes deep anger at those whose recklessness and absence of conscience have constituted a crime against creation Few historians write with Serhii Plokhy’s authority, clarity or global vision. The Nuclear Age is not only the definitive account of how nuclear power and peril have shaped the modern world, but a profound warning about the risks we still face. This is essential reading, and a marvellous book