What happens if human beings can’t handle the power of their own weaponry? This show  examines the dangerous early years of the Nuclear Age and humankind’s efforts to avoid self-destruction at the hands of its own creation.

Dan’s research and book list

More books coming soon!

Oppenheimer clip used by permission from NBCUniversal
NBC WHITE PAPER: DECISION TO DROP THE BOMB (1/5/1965)

Truman Library – Public Papers of the Presidents: Harry S. Truman

ExComm recordings and transcripts

1. “Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World” by Evan Thomas
2. “One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War” by Michael Dobbs
3. “In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam” by Robert S. McNamara and Brian VanDeMark
4. “War” by Gwynne Dyer
5. “Global Catastrophic Risks” by Nick Bostrom and Milan M. Cirkovic
6. “Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety” by Eric Schlosser
7. “Prisoner’s Dilemma: John von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Puzzle of the Bomb” by William Poundstone
8. “LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay” by Warren Kozak
9. “Averting ‘The Final Failure’: John F. Kennedy and the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis Meetings” by Sheldon Stern
10. “The Wizards of Armageddon” by Fred Kaplan and Martin J. Sherwin
11. “One Hell of a Gamble: Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, 1958-1964: The Secret History of the Cuban Missile Crisis” by Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali
12. “The Journals of David E. Lilienthal, Vol. 2: The Atomic Energy Years 1945-1950” by David E. Lilienthal
13. “Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State” by Garry Wills
14. “The Effects of Nuclear War” by OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESMENT Congress of the United States
15. “The Kremlin’s Nuclear Sword: The Rise and Fall of Russia’s Strategic Nuclear Forces, 1945-2000” by Steven J. Zaloga
16. “The Week the World Stood Still: Inside the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis” by Sheldon M. Stern
17. “An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 – 1963” By Robert Dallek
18. “Aftermath: The Remnants of War: From Landmines to Chemical Warfare–The Devastating Effects of Modern Combat” by Donovan Webster
19. “Whole World on Fire: Organizations, Knowledge, and Nuclear Weapons Devastation” by Lynn Eden
20. “In the Shadow of War: The United States since the 1930s” by Michael S. Sherry
21. “The Invention of Peace: Reflections on War and International Order” by Michael Howard
22. “Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War: From Stalin to Krushchev” by Vladislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov
23. “To Win a Nuclear War: The Pentagon’s Secret War Plans” by by Michio Kaku and Daniel Axelrod
24. “War, Peace, and Victory: Strategy and Statecraft for the Next Century” by Colin S Gray
25. “How to Make War (Fourth Edition): A Comprehensive Guide to Modern Warfare in the Twenty-first Century by James F. Dunnigan
26. “The Armageddon Letters: Kennedy, Khrushchev, Castro in the Cuban Missile Crisis” by James G. Blight and janet M. Lang
27. “Khrushchev Remembers” by Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev and Strobe Talbott
28. “Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956” by Mr. David Holloway
29. “Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945 by Michihiko Hachiya
30. “The Culture of the Cold War” by Stephen J. Whitfield
31. “The Lessons of History” by Michael Howard
32. “Technology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present” by Martin Van Creveld
33. “Doctor at Nagasaki: My First Assignment was Mercy Killing” by Masao Shiotsuki
34. “The Cuban Missile Crisis in American Memory: Myths versus Reality” by Sheldon Stern
35. “Nuclear Statecraft: History and Strategy in America’s Atomic Age by Francis J. Gavin
36. “What America Owes the World: The Struggle for the Soul of Foreign Policy” by H. W. Brands
37. “A history of strategic bombing: From the first hot-air balloons to Hiroshima and Nagasaki” by Lee B Kennett
38. “Hibakusha: Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” by by Gaynor Sekimori and Naomi Shohno
39. “Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War” by Susan Southard
40. “We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History” by John Lewis Gaddis
41. “Grand Strategies in War and Peace” by Professor Paul Kennedy
42. “Would the Insects Inherit the Earth? and Other Subjects of Concern to Those Who Worry About Nuclear War” by Jack C. Greene and Daniel J. Strom
43. “Roosevelt to Reagan: A Reporter’s Encounters With Nine Presidents” by Hedley Donovan
44. “The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History” by Philip Bobbitt
45. “War: Ends and Means” by War: Ends and Means
46. “Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons” by Joseph Cirincione
47. “On Thermonuclear War” by Herman Kahn and Evan Jones
48. “World War III: Strategies Tactics and Weapons” by John Bradley
49. “Bombs, Cities, and Civilians: American Airpower Strategy in World War II” by Conrad C. Crane
50. “Strategic Nuclear War: What the Superpowers Target and Why” by William Martel and Paul L. Savage