The nuclear age came into existence with the explosion of the first atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945. The inauguration of this new era was epitomized by the bomb's principal creator, J. Robert Oppenheimer, quoting the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." Since then, the era of the atom has become the age of the bomb?or two bombs: atomic and hydrogen.

In The Nuclear Age, Serhii Plokhy, one of our preeminent Cold War historians, explores why governments have acquired and stockpiled nuclear weapons and reveals the global failure to reach meaningful nuclear arms treaties. Plokhy shows how, since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, the risk of nuclear war has never been so high: Russia threatens nuclear aggression in its war on Ukraine; China is constructing hundreds of new missile silos; and India and Pakistan are locked in ongoing nuclear competition. Plokhy also examines how more countries than ever have come within perilous reach of acquiring nuclear arms, while new technologies, such as hypersonic missiles and artificial intelligence, make the nuclear landscape increasingly unpredictable.

From Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Castle Bravo test of 1954, to the rapidly developing nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran, The Nuclear Age reveals the fear that governs the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Plokhy profiles the global players who have diagnosed, stoked, and influenced this fear, from H. G. Wells to Nikita Khrushchev and Vladimir Putin, and he outlines what we might learn from our past to control today's arms race. As the danger of nuclear war remains imminent, The Nuclear Age diagnoses our era of rearmament.

About the Author
Serhii Plokhy is a professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University. Author of Chernobyl Roulette, he is a leading authority on the history of the Cold War. He lives in Burlington, Massachusetts.

Reviews
"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 marvelous book." -- Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads



Book Information
ISBN 9781324051176
Author Serhii Plokhy
Format Hardback
Page Count 432
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 650g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 160mm * 38mm