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The Fate of the Earth Hardcover – March 12, 1982

by Jonathan Schell (Author)

15 customer reviews

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When Jonathan Schell heard all that loose talk about attainment of objectives in a limited nuclear war, it was too much for him and he did what all of us would like to do: he wrote a book.

It is very pessimistic. The mere presence of all those weapons is enough to ensure that sometime, somewhere, someone is going to set one off.

Schell makes sure all of us know the horrendous possibilities of a nuclear exchange and all the reasons for bringing such possibilities to a halt.

Everyone agrees. The question is, how do we get these monsters under control?

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“This is a work of enormous force. . . . It compels us—and compel is the right word—to confront head-on the nuclear peril.”—New York Times Book Review

“As always, Schell is interesting and ingenious and sometimes moving.”—New Republic

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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7 1.5-hour cassettes --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product details

Hardcover: 244 pages
Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (March 12, 1982)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0394525590
ISBN-13: 978-0394525594
Package Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
Average Customer Review: 15 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #882,813 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #502 in Books > History > Military > Weapons & Warfare > Nuclear

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Jim F

Source document

April 11, 2014

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This weighty and closely reasoned book is considered to have changed history.

If you are interested in understanding how the humans manage to avoid blowing themselves up (so far) this is an important source document.

The NYT said in 1982 that is should be reviewed as an "event of profound historical moment rather than as a book".

If you are interested in how history can be changed by a book read this.

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Douglas Ashby

This is an old work but, in my opinion ...

July 30, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This is an old work but, in my opinion, timeless in providing a uniquely comprehensive perspective with regard to the consequences of nuclear holocaust. In particular, a decision to annihilate ourselves is equally a decision to annihilate future generations.

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October 21, 2014

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

scarriest book i've ever read.

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June 14, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

An excellent book I read when it first came out

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S. Waiblinger

Great read, albeit depressing

August 4, 2010

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The plot summary for this book has already been explained by other reviewers, so I won't bother with that here. This book was required for a seminar I took in college about nuclear proliferation. Despite several presentations by professors studying nuclear proliferation, this book produced the most conversation (and an intelligent one, at that) surrounding the topic.

While a great read, this book is rather depressing. It paints a rather bleak picture about humanity and outlines how simple it would be for humanity to be annihilated. I knocked off one star not for this reason, but simply because the book was not mind-blowing - it was great, but not fantastic.

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Machiavelli's Revenge

Frightening and unimaginable, but appropriate for this moment in time

November 23, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Just received this book the other day and have read about 70 pages It is excellent

I shutter to think that the Imbecile Trump will assume control over 50,000 plus thermonuclear weapons on January, 20 2017 This is a book every American should read, especially 47,000,000 stumps who.voted for him.

I pray we are all still alive by July 4th 2017, and incinerated by a nuclear holocaust because of the diplomatic missteps of this blustering, bungling idiot

BTW, the author notes that a single 1 megaton hydrogen bomb is 80 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on
Hiroshima, Japan August 6 1945. Also, Russian missiles can deliver mutable warheads in one payload which means that New York City could be struck by several 1 megaton hydrogen bombs in a first strike attack. The aftermath according to Schell would be a scenario whose horror and destruction goes beyond human imagination.

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John Desmond

Written with a definite agenda but still worth reading

December 27, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The author is clearly a fanatic on nuclear disarmament (and the idea that the arms race was always mostly our fault). That said, there is still a good deal of solid scientific information here on the nature of nuclear weapons. One has to take some of the author's projections with a grain of salt later on as he tends to go beyond the facts to scare the reader, however.

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