Command and Control

Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

By: Eric Schlosser

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 20 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

A myth-shattering exposé of America's nuclear weapons.

Famed investigative journalist Eric Schlosser digs deep to uncover secrets about the management of America's nuclear arsenal. A groundbreaking account of accidents, near misses, extraordinary heroism, and technological breakthroughs, Command and Control explores the dilemma that has existed since the dawn of the nuclear age: How do you deploy weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them? That question has never been resolved - and Schlosser reveals how the combination of human fallibility and technological complexity still poses a grave risk to mankind. While the harms of global warming increasingly dominate the news, the equally dangerous yet more immediate threat of nuclear weapons has been largely forgotten.

Written with the vibrancy of a first-rate thriller, Command and Control interweaves the minute-by-minute story of an accident at a nuclear missile silo in rural Arkansas with a historical narrative that spans more than 50 years. It depicts the urgent effort by American scientists, policy makers, and military officers to ensure that nuclear weapons can't be stolen, sabotaged, used without permission, or detonated inadvertently. Schlosser also looks at the Cold War from a new perspective, offering history from the ground up, telling the stories of bomber pilots, missile commanders, maintenance crews, and other ordinary servicemen who risked their lives to avert a nuclear holocaust. At the heart of the book lies the struggle, amid the rolling hills and small farms of Damascus, Arkansas, to prevent the explosion of a ballistic missile carrying the most powerful nuclear warhead ever built by the United States.

Drawing on recently declassified documents and interviews with people who designed and routinely handled nuclear weapons, Command and Control takes readers into a terrifying but fascinating world that, until now, has been largely hidden from view. Through the details of a single accident, Schlosser illustrates how an unlikely event can become unavoidable, how small risks can have terrible consequences, and how the most brilliant minds in the nation can only provide us with an illusion of control. Audacious, gripping, and unforgettable, Command and Control is a tour de force of investigative journalism, an eye-opening look at the dangers of America's nuclear age.

©2013 Eric Schlosser (P)2013 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

A New York Times Notable Book of 2013

"A devastatingly lucid and detailed new history of nuclear weapons in the US...fascinating." (Time magazine)

"Schlosser's book reads like a thriller, but it's masterfully even-handed, well researched, and well organised. Either he's a natural genius at integrating massive amounts of complex information, or he worked like a dog to write this book. You wouldn't think the prospect of nuclear apocalypse would make for a reading treat, but in Schlosser's hands it does." Lev Grossman, Jonathan Franzen, The Guardian)

Great Investigative Piece!

Schlosser provides a deep and definitive dive into the U.S.'s history of nuclear weapons. Definitely recommend for anyone interested in that area!

Informative, well researched and thought provoking

Narrator did a good job. The audio book contained many topics related to nuclear weapons that most people probably never knew about. I was not disappointed as I am now more informed for listening.

Excellent!

Difficult to put down. Lots of details and facts that I had no idea had happened. Wow!

eye opener

narrative was great. well thought out. and written well. it really shows how human error can be a problem even in the best circumstances. but great book.

Fascinating

Where does Command and Control rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I assume you are here because you like non-fiction, science, and history.

I really enjoyed this book and could not stop listening.

I must make it clear that some my find the granularity of Schlosser's descriptions of the mechanisms of war may too drab or of putting. I found them to be integral to describing how we ended up with the Damascus accident.

I though Scott Brick's voice was perfect for this Cold War narrative and actually enhances the mood. It almost feels like you are being transported back to the days where you might here a similar voice making an government sponsored announcement regarding a nuclear attack. Again, this teeters on the edge of being too dry, but it worked for me.

The story and the history is truly fascinating and still very much a part of our lives today.

Simply Excellent

A wonderfully terrifying review of nuclear weapon development and proliferation that is as exciting as it is informative.

Lots of info and interesting stories

I enjoyed this book. Load the exact content I was looking for. Lots of general information and stories about nukes.

Required lifetime reading

Quite possibly the finest book ever written on the topic. I’ve had trouble sleeping for days thinking about how close we came to destroying ourselves.

Wowza-what an informative book!

Incredible lesson in history - amazed me, mind boggled me and educated me with a great overview of history. Highly recommend!

An Exquisite, Nonfiction Thriller

Command and Control provides a frightening white-knuckle ride through the history of the Cold War. Interspersed between an account of the 1980 Broken Arrow incident in Damascus, Arkansas, where a Titan II missile was destroyed during a maintenance accident is a chilling account of the intense and often nonsensical fight between the military and civilian scientists over how best to keep the American public safe from our own nuclear weapons.

The Damascus Incident is told as would be a novel, and when the book jumps back into history it takes on the air of a particularly good nonfiction read. The book is a pulse-pounder and can stand alongside the best Techno-thrillers of Tom Clancy or Michael Crichton.

I can listen to this book again and again and never tire of it. Highly recommended for anyone interested in military or cold-war history.