Doomsday Men: The Real Dr. Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon
Language: English
Published by St. Martin's Press, 2007
- Hardcover
- Used
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.ThriftBooks-Dallas
AbeBooks seller since July 2, 2009
Condition: Used - Very good
£ 5.14
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
Former library book; May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.
Seller Inventory # G031237397XI4N10
- Title
- Doomsday Men: The Real Dr. Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon
- Author
- P. D. Smith
- Publisher
- St. Martin's Press
- Publication year
- 2007
- Condition
- Very Good
- Dust jacket
- No Jacket
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 031237397X
- ISBN 13
- 9780312373979
- Item weight
- 1.92 pounds
This is the gripping, untold story of the doomsday bombthe ultimate weapon of mass destruction. In 1950, Hungarian-born scientist Leo Szilard made a dramatic announcement on American radio: science was on the verge of creating a doomsday bomb. For the first time in history, mankind realized that he had within his grasp a truly God-like power, the ability to destroy life itself. The shockwave from this statement reverberated across the following decade and beyond.
If detonated, Szilard's doomsday devicea huge cobalt-clad H-bombwould pollute the atmosphere with radioactivity and end all life on earth. The scientific creators of such apocalyptic weapons had transformed the laws of nature into instruments of mass destruction and for many people in the Cold War there was little to distinguish real scientists from that fictional master of megadeath, Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. Indeed, as PD Smith's chilling account shows, the dream of the superweapon begins in popular culture. This is a story that cannot be told without the iconic films and fictions that portray our deadly fascination with superweapons, from H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds to Nevil Shute's On the Beach and Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Although scientists admitted it was possible to build the cobalt bomb, no superpower would admit to having created one. However, it remained a terrifying possibility, striking fear into the hearts of people around the world. The story of the cobalt bomb is an unwritten chapter of the Cold War, but now PD Smith reveals the personalities behind this feared technology and shows how the scientists responsible for the twentieth century's most terrible weapons grew up in a culture dreaming of superweapons and Wellsian utopias. He argues that, in the end, the doomsday machine became the ultimate symbol of humanity's deepest fears about the science of destruction.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
P.D. Smith is an independent researcher and writer (www.peterdsmith.com). He has taught at University College London where he is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Science and Technology Studies Department. He regularly reviews books for the Guardian, and has written for the Independent, the Financial Times and the Times Literary Supplement among other journals. His previous books are Metaphor and Materiality: German Literature and the World-View of Science 1780-1955 and a biography of Einstein. He lives in Hampshire.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
ThriftBooks-Dallas
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AbeBooks seller since July 2, 2009
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