| Title | : | How to Survive the H-Bomb and Why |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 160 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1962 |
The gist of his message is that all of us can multiply our chances for survival if we make some basic preparations, starting now, and that there are moral reasons why all of us should dig in. "To do so," he says, "is a definite deterrent against nuclear war. And should war come, the acts of individuals in sheltering themselves could mean saving half of those who otherwise would die."
Here we learn what we might expect, should an attack come, from the moment the alerts sound through the first few days after we emerge from our shelters. Here is level-headed advice on how to protect ourselves from fallout and radioactivity, the basic food and medical supplies to have on hand, and many other practical considerations which have occurred to the author as he prepared his own household for the possibility of war and its aftermath.
And although Mr. Frank is convinced that we should brace ourselves for nuclear attack, he also sees hope for peace as the stockpiles of nuclear weapons grow so tall that they become ludicrous, even to the people who erect them. "It is finally apparent," he says, "that the issue is not man against man, but man against the bomb."
How to Survive the H-Bomb and Why Reviews
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This was a quick read I picked up in part because I had read the author's fictional account of a life "after the balloon goes up" (aka mushroom clouds) Alas, Babylon. My interest in books like this stems from a historical curiosity, published in 1962, at the apex of Cold War Hydrogen bomb testing (sabre-rattling) the perspective that nuclear war could be "won" and/or participated in a scalable fashion was still on the table; now an obvious anachronism.
I liked the fact that an author of fiction undertook to discuss the issue for the same reason I enjoyed Murakami's After The Quake, fiction writers tend to look beyond the empirical facts and insert human experience and emotion into devastating topics which standard non-fiction authors tend to treat clinically. As a reader, catastrophe appears to REQUIRE a more nuanced examination beyond the facts, but still sticking to the realities at hand.
Frank is very up-front that nuclear war is unwinnable and untenable, but presents his arguments for improved Civil Defense (home shelters, planning, decentralization, etc.) as necessary expressly because it may be as large a deterrent for the Hawks of either Empire, as they calculate the efficacy of trying to "win" a nuclear war. Since all Americans are "soldiers" by default in a total war, might it not make sense then to be prepared, mitigating the potential life loss calculus which might make a pre-emptive strike from abroad tantalizing.
Frank is from the text, an optimist, hoping for peace but encouraging preparedness and suggesting there is always something to live for, to grow towards, even after an H-bomb drops.
Some 50years later this text is insightful, in that the threat has only lessened slightly, but the rhetoric & danger of total war has been reduced substantially. The science has been refined and the fatal underlying truths of mutually assured destruction, have made disarmament the only real option on the table, even if politically unfeasible in the immediate. -
Sadly out of print, this book is well worth reading, and I am very glad I managed to track down a copy.
Despite some who criticize the book for what they perceive as naivety or silly optimism regarding nuclear war, I actually found the book to be a level-headed assessment given the conditions of the day. The author, who is best remembered for his classic novel Alas, Babylon, does an excellent job in this nonfiction appraisal of nuclear war of fairly presenting the horrors as well as the prospects for survival, prospects that today may be laughed at but that nonetheless remain within the realm of possibility.
There is also enough of the 1960s newspaperman's dry humor throughout to keep the reading enjoyable, and the book is concise enough that I read it in one day. If you can find a copy, I highly recommend this book! -
A dated book written in the late 1950s about surviving an atomic war. Interesting reading if dated. It also mentions a lot of Civil Defense programs that never got out of the planning stage or were quickly abandoned (CONELRAD and NEAR for instance).
