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|  | |  | | | On Thermonuclear War | | | | | SKU:
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Usually ships in 10-19 business days | | | | | | On Thermonuclear War was controversial when originally published and remains so today. It is iconoclastic, crosses disciplinary boundaries, and finally it is calm and compellingly reasonable. The book was widely read on both sides of the Iron Curtain and the result was serious revision in both Western and Soviet strategy and doctrine. As a result, both sides were better able to avoid disaster during the Cold War. The strategic concepts still apply: defense, local animosities, and the usual balance-of-power issues are still very much with us. Kahn's stated purpose in writing this book was simply: "avoiding disaster and buying time, without specifying the use of this time." By the late 1950s, with both sides H-bomb-armed, reason and time were in short supply. Kahn, a military analyst at Rand since 1948, understood that a defense based only on thermonuclear arnaments was inconceivable, morally questionable, and not credible. The book was the first to make sense of nuclear weapons. Originally created from a series of lectures, it provides insight into how policymakers consider such issues. One may agree with Kahn or disagree with him on specific issues, but he clearly defined the terrain of the argument. He also looks at other weapons of mass destruction such as biological and chemical, and the history of their use. The Cold War is over, but the nuclear genie is out of the bottle, and the lessons and principles developed in On Thermonuclear War apply as much to today's China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea as they did to the Soviets. | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Herman Kahn | | Paperback: | 668 pages | | Publisher: | Transaction Publishers | | Publication Date: | July 17, 2007 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 141280664X | | Product Length: | 8.79 inches | | Product Width: | 6.3 inches | | Product Height: | 1.67 inches | | Product Weight: | 2.16 pounds | | Package Length: | 8.9 inches | | Package Width: | 6.0 inches | | Package Height: | 1.8 inches | | Package Weight: | 2.3 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 9 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 9 customer reviews )
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25 of 26 found the following review helpful:
 Unfortunately someone has to think of these things Jun 06, 2005
By Hallstatt Prince
Herman Kahn has had many epithets hurled at him in his day. It is even rumored that Stanley Kubrick based his Dr. Strangelove character after him.
But the truth is he does a job someone has to do when countries possess nuclear weapons.
In this book Kahn discusses the unthinkable: how would a nuclear war be fought and what would be the consequences. He does this in the only way it can be done-in a dispassionate way. He asks such questions as to whether civilization can survive a nuclear war and if so how long it would take for it to recover.
His conclusion based on the facts and technology of the time he wrote the book (1962) was that nuclear war was winnable. Detractors of the book saw it as advocating nuclear war which is far from the truth. How easy it is to shoot the messenger.
From many accounts of Kahn the man he was far from bloodless and he was in fact optimistic about the future.
As one reads this book one enters into the mind of a great thinker. He was a highly logical man who dared to take on a problem others saw as taboo. Some may not like the way he deals with the subject but as long as we possess nuclear weapons the problems and all of their ramifications must be considered.
A frightening yet interesting read.
Jim Connell "Hallstatt Prince"
16 of 19 found the following review helpful:
 Tough Reading, but Worth It Mar 10, 1998
By sheepherder@geocities.com
On Thermonuclear War is a work from 1960 that runs counter to the conventional wisdom of his day, and which still exists to this day. He attacks the so-called "cataclysmic" view of nuclear war. Kahn provides numbers to show that a total nuclear war is survivable, and that our society could eventually recuperate. Make no mistake, at no point does he advocate nuclear war, he merely makes us face the fact that it could happen, and that we had better be prepared to deal with it. After all, the Soviets did. Although this book would seem to be dated in this Post-Cold War era, remember that we and the Russians still possess hefty nuclear arsenals, and the world is a much less stable place than during the Cold War. This book can be hard to read, given the plethora of technical information, but it is worth it.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Strong insights on military might and strategy. Dec 02, 2007
By Midwest Book Review
ON THERMONUCLEAR WAR was controversial when it was first published - and still is, today. No light reading, at well over 600 pages it packs in details from across disciplines and was widely read on both sides of the Iron Curtain: today its many insights on military strategies, issues, and the logic of amassing thermonuclear armaments still apply. It was the first book to examine the underlying logic of making and keeping nuclear weapons, originally created from a series of lectures, and provides both military and college-level collections with strong insights on military might and strategy.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Someone Had to do It Oct 25, 2010
By Stephen M. Gorin
"stevieg"
Herman Kahn's "On Thermonuclear War" may be appreciated on many levels. Firstly since his ideas were apparently too "real" for the RAND Institute, he went off and founded his own think-tank, The Hudson Institute.
Secondly, in many ways "On Thermo...." represents the first truly modern approach to the discipline known as Systems Analysis.
And finally Kahn had the courage to realize that all previous \scenarios involving thermonuclear war truly were lightweight and an honest assessment was necessary. He delivered. In spades. Hence chapter titles such as "Will the Living Envy the Dead?". He approached this without irony, with a rock-solid grasp of the facts and possibilities and developed his scenarios on existing knowledge of thermonuclear war and its effects and definite real grounding in prevailing defense policy.
Chilling? To be sure. And even in the years since its publication it has not lost an iota of possibility regarding the consequences of such insane acts as he describes. His analysis makes John Schlesinger's "Mutual Assured Destruction" (MAD) seem like child's play. In Kahn's time and world the generals were clearly out not win, not deter.
Roughly thirty or so years ago, Atlantic Monthly ran an article that evaluated nuclear war scenarios (fiction and realistic) as pornography, lacking any other analogue. An excellent article that may be tracked down via Atlantic's site. In it most fiction such a "Level 7", Red Alert" (basis for Dr. Strangelove) and "On The Beach" were treated as softcore nuclear porno.
In contrast "Fail Safe" and "On Thermonuclear War" reigned as truce hardcore examples of the genre.
In all, Kahn's book is excellent and timely, the Atlantic article is worth tracking down. And Peter Watkins's film, "War Game" is also worth serious viewing as well as receiving a hardcore rating by the author of the Atlantic article.
Chilling and yet compelling and above-all necessary to remind us of the continuance of our on-going death fetish and folly.
By the way, Kahn is scrupulously neutral. Simply the honest facts regarding where our policies could lead.
Groundbreaking and necessary now as well as then.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
A captivating look at nuclear strategies Dec 25, 2008
By WHC
It's good to see this book back in print, even though nearly 50 years have passed since it was written, because it analyzes a topic of vital importance to national security. Author Herman Kahn is the man (and his book) who was the genesis for Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, "Dr. Strangelove." The book gives the reader a chilling look at strategies in which to wage *and* win a nuclear war. It is definitely an iconoclastic work for the factual and dispassionate manner in which mass casualties and future birth defects are discussed and quantified --- with graphical information plotted logarithmically by order of magnitude. In retrospect the work is quite outdated, but the discussions of nuclear-powered aircraft and available mine-shaft space are amusing. Nevertheless, it is a captivating look at civilian and military planning to survive and rebound from the unthinkable.
See all 9 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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