Bomb Culture
10 May 2026 | cold war, Doomsday Men, Dr Strangelove, nuclear weapons, Reviewing, TLS, Writing & Poetry | Post a comment
The Times Literary Supplement has just published my review of four studies of nuclear history:
Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age 1895–1965, by Frank Close
Nuclear Weapons: An International History, by David Holloway
The Nuclear Age: An Epic Race for Arms, Power, and Survival, by Serhii Plokhy
The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age, by Alex Wellerstein
They were all fascinating and well worth reading: Close focuses on the scientific history. Wellerstein’s “atomic biography” of Truman was full of insights into the first and hopefully last use of nuclear weapons, as well as the early years of the cold war. Plokhy and Holloway offer wide-ranging and important geopolitical surveys of the challenges raised by nuclear weapons in the international arena during the cold war. Importantly, Plokhy brings the nuclear story up to date with the war in Ukraine, revealing the very real dangers of the current moment.
You can read my review here.
