History at its most nail-biting. This should be read as a counterpoint to Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters, a description of the military plans that led to the need for the nuclear materials.

Many of the anecdotes are terrifying, and make one wonder how we managed to to survive the Cold War – and how we’ll survive the current era too, given that the systems are all still in place with their existing faults.

5/5. Finished Saturday 17 November, 2018.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)