Nuclear Weapons: What You Need to Know

Nuclear Weapons: What You Need to Know
by Jeremy Bernstein

Nuclear Weapons: What You Need to Know
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Book Summary Information

Author: Jeremy Bernstein
Edition: Hardcover
Published: 2007-10-15
ISBN: 052188408X
Number of pages: 312
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Book Reviews of Nuclear Weapons: What You Need to Know

Book Review: Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars

On the page before the book's title page there's a one-paragraph abstract for the book, along with a brief paragraph about the author. One sentence in the abstract says "The book is a history of nuclear weapons." Yes it is, although I think the Richard Rhodes book _The Making of the Atomic Bomb_ is a much more satisfying history. Bernstein does include one technically important topic, new to me, that wasn't even breathed about in the Rhodes book -- the high sensitivity of plutonium's crystalline state to temperature.

Since the book's subtitle is "What You Need to Know," I initially figured another sentence in the abstract was key to the book: "Dr. Bernstein writes in response to what he sees as a widespread misunderstanding throughout the media and hence among the general public of the basic workings and potential impact of nuclear weaponry." Then in his Introduction, Bernstein suggests, quoting Stanley Kubrick, that most people are blase about the danger of nuclear weapons -- they have "even less interest in them than they [do] in city government. (...) [P]eople seem to look on the absence of a nuclear conflict as they would money growing in a savings account."

Overall, then, I thought Bernstein would try to graphically remind us that nuclear weapons are REALLY DANGEROUS and propose approaches citizens might take to lessen the likelihood of a REALLY GRIM future. As a 60-year-old physicist myself (and one who's become as blase as everyone else about the hazard of such fearsome weapons), this struck me as a worthy aim on Bernstein's part.

But, apparently, in writing the book, Bernstein essentially forgot about that theme (if it was ever really his intention -- maybe I'm wrong) and merely wrote a rather meandering history of nuclear weapons, including his slight personal acquaintance with them, the latter being familiar to me, probably from articles of his in The New Yorker.

So the book is a disappointment in that way. It's also surprisingly muddled about physics at quite a number of points. There are points at which I'd like to understand what he's trying to describe, but I can't. Worse, there are a couple of instances where he spouts stuff that I recognize as nonsense, but a layman probably wouldn't recognize it as such. Two specific examples of such howlers:

Page 210 - "Fifty grams of [deuterium] plus [tritium] has about the mass of one gram of uranium." Perhaps he actually meant "about the energy."

Page 214 - "As [the sun] compressed [during its formation], the pressure at the center became greater and greater, which increased the temperature." Cause and effect exactly backwards! Actually, increasing temperature boosted the pressure.

Bernstein **can** write well. His two "Reporter At Large" New Yorker articles in 1975 about the great physicist I.I. Rabi were terrific. But he shouldn't be satisfied with this new book.

Two stars because some of the historical vignettes are new (to me) and interesting.
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Summary of Nuclear Weapons: What You Need to Know

Nuclear Weapons is a history of nuclear weapons. From their initial theoretical development at the start of the twentieth century to the recent tests in North Korea, the author seeks to, at each point in the narrative, describe the basic science of nuclear weaponry. At the same time, he offers accounts and anecdotes of the personalities involved, many of whom he has known firsthand. Dr. Bernstein writes in response to what he sees as a widespread misunderstanding throughout the media of the basic workings and potential impact of nuclear weaponry.
Nuclear Weapons is a history of nuclear weapons. From their initial theoretical development at the start of the twentieth century to the recent tests in North Korea, the author seeks to, at each point in the narrative, describe the basic science of nuclear weaponry. At the same time, he offers accounts and anecdotes of the personalities involved, many of whom he has known firsthand.

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