Nuclear Weapons

A Very Short Introduction

By: Joseph M. Siracusa

Narrated by: Shawn Compton

Nuclear weapons have not been used in anger since the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Yet even after the Cold War, the Bomb is still the greatest threat facing humankind. As President Bill Clinton's first secretary of defense, Les Aspin, put it, "The Cold War is over, the Soviet Union is no more. But the post-Cold War world is decidedly not post-nuclear". For all the efforts to reduce nuclear stockpiles, the Bomb is here to stay.

This Very Short Introduction looks at the science of nuclear weapons and how they differ from conventional weapons. Tracing the story of the nuclear bomb, Joseph Siracusa chronicles the race to acquire the H-bomb, a thermonuclear weapon with revolutionary implications; and the history of early arms control, nuclear deterrence, and nonproliferation. He also tracks the development of nuclear weapons from the origins of the Cold War in 1945 to the end of Moscow-dominated Communism in 1991, and examines the promise and prospect of missile defense, including Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" and George W. Bush's National Missile Defense. This third edition includes a new chapter on the development of nuclear weapons and the policies they have generated since the end of the Cold War.

©2020 Joseph M. Siracusa (P)2020 Tantor

Great introduction

Fascinating history and development about a terrible reality. Nuclear weapons are a terrifying thing, but it’s important to understand how why and they’ve come about. This is a great introduction to the subject of nuclear weapons and what the future may hold.

Not the greatest narrator, but I’ve definitely heard worse.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Solid, brief primer in nuclear weapons

The author offers some necessary background on the physics of Nuclear weapons, the history of their development programs, and various efforts to share nuclear power for peaceful purposes without proliferating weapons. he then offers sort of a look around the world and over the decades of how nuclear weapons have and haven't been used. Very solid book.