Search results

'Everything about this story is astounding' Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times"Trinity" was the codename for the test explosion of the atomic bomb in New Mexico on 16 July 1945. Trinity is now also the extraordinary story of the bomb's metaphorical father, Rudolf Peierls; his intellectual son, the atomic spy, Klaus Fuchs, and the ghosts of the security services in Britain, the USA and USSR.Against the background of pre-war Nazi Germany, the Second World War and the following Cold War, the book traces...

South Africa's Weapons of Mass Destruction offers an in-depth view of the secret development and voluntary disarmament of South Africa's nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons program, Project Coast. Helen E. Purkitt and Stephen F. Burgess explore how systems used for nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons in South Africa were acquired and established beyond the gaze of international and domestic political actors. On the basis of archival evidence from Project Coast and their own extensive...

Michael Schaller argues that the reconstruction of postwar Japan not only shaped the future of that country, but also the future of U.S. policy throughout postwar Asia, leading up to the controversial interventions in China, Korea, and Vietnam. In this detailed study, he shows how the U.S., after the war, sought to develop Japan as a stable bulwark against both Soviet expansion and Asian revolution. In particular, he depicts the intense conflict that raged among American officials, with the flam...

‘One of the finest memoirs published in recent years.’ Dan Jones ‘An utterly fascinating and wonderfully detailed insight into the hidden world of the modern submarine.’ James Holland A candid, visceral, and incredibly entertaining account of what it’s like to live in one of the most extreme environments in the world. Imagine a world without natural light, where you can barely stand up straight for fear of knocking your head, where you have n...

Weapons of mass destruction (WMD) are the greatest threat to national security in the twenty-first century. How to Build a Nuclear Bomb explains what it takes for a rogue state or terrorist group to obtain and use them. But nuclear weapons and terrorism expert Frank Barnaby has not written a collection of scare stories. His purpose in How to Build a Nuclear Bomb is to counteract the "misinformation, often put out for propaganda purposes" and general ignorance on this most urgent of topics. Barna...

According to estimates, Russia has 11,000 nuclear warheads, the USA 8500, the Ukraine 1500, France 800, Kazakhstan 600, China 300, the UK 300, Israel 100 and Belarus 36. The Cold War may have ended, but the arms race is very much up and running. Michael Foot's engagement with the peace movement spans over 40 years. In "Dr Stranglove, I Presume", he examines the state of the world's nuclear stockpiles and the awful developments in India and Pakistan as they test effective missiles in the 1990s, p...

We continue to face a choice with respect to nuclear weapons -- either to move safely toward their elimination or to remain their victim. A forty-year effort to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons is breaking down, and the likely acquisition of these weapons by terrorist groups is growing. In Fatal Choice, Richard Butler, a well-known and respected voice on the subject of nuclear weapons, argues that we are poised on the verge of a second and much more threatening nuclear arms race than the on...

A new analysis of the technology and tanks that faced off against each other on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain, during the very height of the Cold War. From the 1960s onwards, there was a generational shift in tank design and warfare with the advent of CBR (chemical, biological, radiological) protection and a move away from HEAT ammunition to APFSDS. This shift confronted the growing threat of guided anti-tank missiles and saw the introduction of composite armor. Soviet heavy tanks and tank...

Part I discusses the creation of the Commissariat a I'Energie Atomique and outlines its structure and function. Part II focuses on the development of military atomic policy. Originally published in 1965. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable pape...

From the dawn of the atomic age to today, nuclear weapons have been central to the internal dynamics of US alliances in Europe and Asia. But nuclear weapons cooperation in US alliances has varied significantly between allies and over time. Partners in deterrence explores the history of America's nuclear posture worldwide, delving into alliance structures and interaction during and since the end of the Cold War to uncover the underlying dynamics of nuclear weapons cooperation between the US and i...

It is the early 1950s. Kristen Iversen is enjoying a carefree childhood surrounded by desert and mountains. But just a few miles down the road, the US government decides to build a secret nuclear weapons facility at Rocky Flats. Kirsten and her siblings jump streams, ride horses, live a happy outdoors life. But beneath this veneer her family is quietly falling apart. Her father drinks, her mother copes. And in a series of fires, accidents and other catastrophic leaks, Rocky Flats nuclear plant i...

The nature of the nuclear proliferation danger has changed dramatically in recent years. Although more nations than ever before are renouncing nuclear arms under strict international control, a handful of states persistently challenge international norms. Some are attempting to skirt nuclear restrictions they have previously accepted. Others continue to enhance their nuclear forces. Equally threatening is the prospect of an international black market in nuclear materials--a prospect made much mo...