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Product Description
This book examines the military side of what may be the major problem that faces civilization, comparing some of the alternatives that seem available and some of the implications of these choices.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is truly a remarkable tome. The thinking that goes behind it is basically this: How do we justify megadeath: that killing only two million people is okay, but killing twenty million is deemed unaqcceptable. This was written at a time when the American government, and in particular the RAND corporation were paid to think the unthinkable, and trying to get people to habituate themselves to hydrogen bomb testing and if we only killed 2 million people everyting would come out alright in the end. Reading this nowadays, post cold-war is actually something which stuns comprehension, that people really did think that a thermonuclear war was not only survivable, but that the countrys economy would actually be able to recuperate in such a way that post-war conditions would not actually be that bad. The mind-set of the author which prevails throughout is that a thermonuclear would be bad,but it would not be the end of civilisation, or the end of history. It is pretty heavy reading, lots of statistics, tables etc., but it gives an interesting hypothetical evaluation of future possible wars, and what these would entail. A very interesting book, even if nowadays a lot of the rhetoric seems almost humorous in its optimistic outlook. It is fascinating to think that this stuff was actually deadly serious at the time. Frightening speculative stuff, and if one can remain committed to reading this all the way through, food for thought.
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
At first glance, this book looks like its going to be heavy going, and it is. It encapsulates completely the mind-set of the military strategists and planners at the height of cold-war paranoia. The author tries his very best to habituate the public to h-bomb testing and how if we only kill 2 million people everything will come out alright in the end. Looking at the opinions expressed in this book today it stuns comprehension that obviously highly intelligent people like the author really did believe that admittedly, although the country's economy may suffer setbacks that recuperation really was possible, and standards of living in the post-war world wouldnt be all that bad! At the time this book was written, it was believed to be worth investing in civil defense, although after reading this it is easy to see why this campaign fell flat. The public werent very interested. It is obvious that while civil defense would save some lives, it would not save all lives, and what came afterwards would make life not worth living!
I got the feeling that this book tries very hard to push the civil defense idea as a good one, that yes although post-attack life may be difficult, it would not mean that life would not prevail. In retrospect it is incredible in its naivety, but one must remember that this was written at a time when not all the facts were known about contamination etc, and the bomb was still seen as the saviour of the free world.
It is a weight tome, but if you can read it to the end, it provides a real insight into what made these strategists tick. There is the concept of the Doomsday machine, which featured in Dr. Strangelove. This was a series of computers rigged up to buried H-bombs which would automatically trigger massive retaliation if the defending country was attacked. This was proved to be theoretically possible, but, as far as is known, the idea was never adopted by either ofthe superpowers.
I got the feeling that this book tries very hard to push the civil defense idea as a good one, that yes although post-attack life may be difficult, it would not mean that life would not prevail. In retrospect it is incredible in its naivety, but one must remember that this was written at a time when not all the facts were known about contamination etc, and the bomb was still seen as the saviour of the free world.
It is a weight tome, but if you can read it to the end, it provides a real insight into what made these strategists tick. There is the concept of the Doomsday machine, which featured in Dr. Strangelove. This was a series of computers rigged up to buried H-bombs which would automatically trigger massive retaliation if the defending country was attacked. This was proved to be theoretically possible, but, as far as is known, the idea was never adopted by either ofthe superpowers.
An interesting foray into a world which we will hopefully never inhabit again.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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9 reviews
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Unfortunately someone has to think of these things
6 Jun 2005
Format:Hardcover
Herman Kahn has had many epithets hurled at him in his day. It is even rumored that Stanley Kubrick based his Dr. Strangelove character after him.
But the truth is he does a job someone has to do when countries possess nuclear weapons.
In this book Kahn discusses the unthinkable: how would a nuclear war be fought and what would be the consequences. He does this in the only way it can be done-in a dispassionate way. He asks such questions as to whether civilization can survive a nuclear war and if so how long it would take for it to recover.
His conclusion based on the facts and technology of the time he wrote the book (1962) was that nuclear war was winnable. Detractors of the book saw it as advocating nuclear war which is far from the truth. How easy it is to shoot the messenger.
From many accounts of Kahn the man he was far from bloodless and he was in fact optimistic about the future.
As one reads this book one enters into the mind of a great thinker. He was a highly logical man who dared to take on a problem others saw as taboo. Some may not like the way he deals with the subject but as long as we possess nuclear weapons the problems and all of their ramifications must be considered.
A frightening yet interesting read.
Jim Connell "Hallstatt Prince"
But the truth is he does a job someone has to do when countries possess nuclear weapons.
In this book Kahn discusses the unthinkable: how would a nuclear war be fought and what would be the consequences. He does this in the only way it can be done-in a dispassionate way. He asks such questions as to whether civilization can survive a nuclear war and if so how long it would take for it to recover.
His conclusion based on the facts and technology of the time he wrote the book (1962) was that nuclear war was winnable. Detractors of the book saw it as advocating nuclear war which is far from the truth. How easy it is to shoot the messenger.
From many accounts of Kahn the man he was far from bloodless and he was in fact optimistic about the future.
As one reads this book one enters into the mind of a great thinker. He was a highly logical man who dared to take on a problem others saw as taboo. Some may not like the way he deals with the subject but as long as we possess nuclear weapons the problems and all of their ramifications must be considered.
A frightening yet interesting read.
Jim Connell "Hallstatt Prince"
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Tough Reading, but Worth It
10 Mar 1998
Format:Hardcover
On Thermonuclear War is a work from 1960 that runs counter to the conventional wisdom of his day, and which still exists to this day. He attacks the so-called "cataclysmic" view of nuclear war. Kahn provides numbers to show that a total nuclear war is survivable, and that our society could eventually recuperate. Make no mistake, at no point does he advocate nuclear war, he merely makes us face the fact that it could happen, and that we had better be prepared to deal with it. After all, the Soviets did. Although this book would seem to be dated in this Post-Cold War era, remember that we and the Russians still possess hefty nuclear arsenals, and the world is a much less stable place than during the Cold War. This book can be hard to read, given the plethora of technical information, but it is worth it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Strong insights on military might and strategy.
2 Dec 2007
Format:Paperback
ON THERMONUCLEAR WAR was controversial when it was first published - and still is, today. No light reading, at well over 600 pages it packs in details from across disciplines and was widely read on both sides of the Iron Curtain: today its many insights on military strategies, issues, and the logic of amassing thermonuclear armaments still apply. It was the first book to examine the underlying logic of making and keeping nuclear weapons, originally created from a series of lectures, and provides both military and college-level collections with strong insights on military might and strategy.
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