Down The Atomic Rabbit Hole

Over the years, I’ve been chewing on media related to nuclear weapons. This is my high-level, non-exhaustive documentation of my consumption — with links!

• 📖 The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes.
  • This is one of those definitive histories (it’s close to 1,000 pages and won a Pulitzer Prize). It starts with the early discoveries in physics, like the splitting of the atom, and goes up to the end of WWII. I really enjoyed this one. A definite recommendation.
  • 📖 Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb by Richard Rhodes is the sequel. If you want to know how we went from atomic weapons to thermonuclear ones, I think this one will do it. It was a harder read for me though. It got into a lot of the politics and espionage of the Cold War and I fizzled out on it (plus my library copy had to be returned, somebody else had it on hold). I’ll probably go pick it up again though and finish it — eventually.
• 📖 The Bomb: A Life by Gerard J. DeGroot
  • This one piqued my interest because it covers more history of the bomb after its first use, including the testing that took place in Nevada not far from where I grew up. Having had a few different friends growing up whose parents died of cancer that was attributed to being “downwinders” this part of the book hit close to home. Which reminds me of:
  • 🎥 Downwinders & The Radioactive West from PBS. Again, growing up amongst locals who saw some of the flashes of light from the tests and experienced the fallout come down in their towns, this doc hit close to home. I had two childhood friends who lost their Dads to cancer (and their families received financial compensation from the gov. for it).
• 📖 Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser
  • Read this one years ago when it first came out. It’s a fascinating look at humans bumbling around with terrible weapons.
  • 🎥 Command and Control from PBS is the documentary version of the book. I suppose watch this first and if you want to know more, there’s a whole book for you.
• 📖 Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
  • Terrifying.
  • 🎥 House of Dynamite just came out on Netlify and is basically a dramatization of aspects of this book.
• 📖 The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump by William J. Perry and Tom Z. Collina
  • How did we get to a place where a single individual has sole authority to destroy humanity at a moment’s notice? Interesting because it’s written by former people in Washington, like the Sec. of Defense under Clinton, so you get a taste of the bureaucracy that surrounds the bomb.
• 🎧 Hardcore History 59 – The Destroyer of Worlds by Dan Carlin
  • First thing I’ve really listened to from Dan. It’s not exactly cutting-edge scholarship and doesn’t have academic-level historical rigor, but it’s a compelling story around how humans made something they’ve nearly destroyed themselves with various times. The part in here about the cuban missile crisis is wild. It led me to:
  • 📖 Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Serhii Plokhy is a deep look at the Cuban Missile crisis. This is a slow burning audiobook I’m still chewing through. You know how you get excited about a topic and you’re like “I’m gonna learn all about that thing!” And then you start and it’s way more than you wanted to know so you kinda back out? That’s where I am with this one.
• 🎥 The Bomb by PBS.
  • A good, short primer on the bomb. It reminds me of:
  • 🎥 Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War on Netflix which is a longer, multi-episode look at the bomb during the Cold War.
• 📝 Last, but not least, I gotta include at least one blog! Alex Wellerstein, a historian of science and creator of the nukemap, blogs at Doomsday Machines if you want something for your RSS reader.

Phew!

This isn’t exhaustive, but if you’ve got recommendations I didn’t mention, send them my way.