15 February 2008 | Atomic Age, cold war, Doomsday Men, Dr Strangelove, Science & literature
Saul Austerlitz has written a very knowledgeable review of Doomsday Men for today’s Moscow Times. Here are the opening paragraphs:
“ ‘We are keeping the rings in this bucket, here.’ A shell-shocked civil defense officer gestures to a hefty metal bucket at his feet, stuffed with what appear to be thousands of wedding rings. The rings have been gathered from the dead in a small British city; their inscriptions are the only hope authorities have of identifying those incinerated by the deployment of a nuclear weapon. ‘This,’ a narrator mournfully concludes, ‘is nuclear war.’
The scene is imagined, only one of the wealth of emotionally overwhelming moments that make up Peter Watkins’ 1965 Academy Award-winning fictional documentary The War Game, still the best film ever made on the subject. Nuclear war is not merely a matter of warheads and tactics, presidents and premiers; it is also a matter of the bucket of wedding rings.
This tension — between warheads and wedding rings, detached analysis and a deep-rooted understanding of the human fallout from technologically accelerated combat — forms the primary subject matter of P.D. Smith’s engaging, unsettling Doomsday Men: The Real Dr. Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon. Scientifically and culturally adept, Doomsday Men tracks the pursuit of devastating weaponry in both laboratories and pulp magazines.”
You can read the rest here.
28 January 2008 | Atomic Age, cold war, Doomsday Men
The Philadelphia Inquirer has published a very perceptive review of Doomsday Men by physicist and science writer Paul Halpern.
Here are a couple of highlights:
“Doomsday Men offers a marvelous resource for understanding the issues and personalities underlying Kubrick’s masterpiece and other creative interpretations of the Cold War. From pulp science-fiction stories to Godzilla’s theatrical invasions, it is a veritable lexicon of atomic-age culture. Consequently, it is a long and meaty book, but fast-paced nonetheless. […]
With the Cold War fading into history, Doomsday Men offers a valuable reminder of the period’s fears and foibles. It provides an outstanding guide to a pivotal era when humanity first faced the terrifying prospect of annihilation by its own hand.”
Read the whole review here.
23 January 2008 | Hoeppe, Reviewing, Science & literature, TLS
This week’s Times Literary Supplement contains my review of Why the Sky is Blue: Discovering the Color of Life, by Götz Hoeppe (Princeton). I reviewed it originally at the end of 2007 and included it in my Books of the Year.
Unfortunately, the TLS haven’t put it online yet, but if you’re feeling in the mood for some blue sky thinking then you can read my version here.
19 January 2008 | Central Park, cities, New York, Reviewing
There is something quite unique about a city park. One minute you are walking along a busy street and the next you’re strolling under trees. They are a reminder of the world beyond the city.
Central Park is one of my favourites. Perhaps because the contrast between the concrete canyons of the city and the leafy shade of the park is so great in New York. It’s a wonderful place to walk.
But did you know that in 2002, naturalists discovered that Central Park is home to a species found nowhere else on the planet: Hoffman’s dwarf centipede. And that as many as 275 bird species have been spotted there, including bufflehead ducks and hooded mergansers.
These facts are courtesy of Leslie Day’s Field Guide to the Natural World of New York City, an amazing book that reveals a surprisingly green side to the Big Apple. The illustrations — such as this image of a peregrine falcon — are by Mark Klingler. I’ve written a review of it for today’s Guardian Review, along with Abrahamson & Freedman’s paean to disorder, A Perfect Mess.
07 January 2008 | cold war, Doomsday Men, Oppenheimer, Szilard |
Publishers Weekly gave Doomsday Men a starred review this week. This is what they had to say:
Weaving together biography, science and art, Smith has created a compelling history of physics in the 20th century, focusing on the long-lasting search for ever more destructive weapons—from the development of chemical warfare in World War I Germany through the arms race of the Cold War. Explaining “why some of the most gifted and idealistic men of the twentieth century spent so much effort trying to destroy the planet,” Smith’s dynamic, riveting narrative reveals details of people, places and events that are rarely covered in textbooks, bringing to life not just scientists like Robert Oppenheimer and Leo Szilard, but the horrors of chemical and atomic warfare. Time and again, “it seemed that a giant leap forward for science also meant a step backward for mankind,” and contemporary film and fiction echoed this sentiment with “clear signs… [of] genuine resentment towards scientists for betraying the high ideals of their profession and, indeed, the best interests of humanity.” Ironically, the goal of many of these scientists was peace, not war: “Many scientists were convinced that the terrible reality of atomic superweapons would force nations to resolve their disputes and work for world peace.” Captivating and thoroughly referenced, this chronicle should interest a wide audience, from science and history buffs to armchair politicos.
