Pulitzer Prize General Non Fiction Winner
The Dead Hand
by David E. Hoffman
Summary
A history of the final stretch of the Cold War arms race, anchored by the Soviet Dead Hand system designed to ensure automatic nuclear retaliation even after a decapitating strike. Hoffman draws on declassified documents and interviews with weapons scientists to reveal a series of accidents, misreadings, and launches narrowly averted on both sides. The result is a sobering account of how close the superpowers came to catastrophe.
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Historical Context & Significance
The book reads like a technological thriller but is based on declassified documents regarding the terrifying close calls of the 1980s.