Gambling with Armageddon

*Kirkus Reviews* "The Best Books of the Year"

“[This] book should become the definitive account of its subject.” —The New York Times

“In this riveting book, Sherwin provides a fresh and thrilling account of the Cuban Missile Crisis and also puts it into historical perspective. With great new material, he shows the effect of nuclear arms on global affairs, starting with the decision to bomb Hiroshima. It is a fascinating work of history that is very relevant to today’s politics.” —Walter Isaacson, author of Leonardo da Vinci

“Engrossing . . . Forget everything you think you know about how close the world came to nuclear war, then read this superb new book that completely upends the mythology of those critical weeks in October 1962 . . . From the opening pages [Sherwin] draws the reader into the immediacy of the Crisis . . . Should make everyone who reads it and was born after October 1962 extremely thankful to be alive.” —Jerry D. Lenaburg, New York Journal of Books

"Intricately detailed, vividly written, and nearly Tolstoyan in scope, Sherwin’s account reveals just how close the Cold War came to boiling over. History buffs will be enthralled.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A fresh examination of the Cuban missile crisis and its wider historical context, showing how the U.S. avoided nuclear war . . . Makes it clear how national leaders bumbled through the crisis, avoiding nuclear Armageddon through modest amounts of wisdom mixed with plenty of machismo, delusions, and serendipity . . . A fearfully convincing case that avoiding nuclear war ‘is contingent on the world’s dwindling reservoir of good luck.’” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Examines nuclear policy as it evolved in the Cold War, culminating with the chillingly suspenseful week-long drama of the Cuban Missile Crisis . . . Grounded in an exceptional and up-to-date knowledge of the military, diplomatic, and individual components of American and Soviet politics.” —Mark Levine, Booklist (starred review)

“In Gambling with Armageddon Martin J. Sherwin summarizes the ‘official’ narrative of the ‘thirteen days’ as follows. Members of ExComm, through ‘their careful consideration of the challenge, their firmness in the face of terrifying danger, and their wise counsel,’ steered the world to a peaceful resolution of a potentially civilization-ending conflict. Nothing, he writes, ‘could be further from the truth.’” —Elizabeth Kolbert, *The New Yorker

*“One of our ablest chroniclers of the larger-than-life personalities and lasting environmental effects of the nuclear age.” —Marc Ambinder, The American Scholar

“A thrilling account of the tension-filled days when the world teetered on the edge of nuclear apocalypse. Drawing on new sources, Martin Sherwin shows how the Cuban missile crisis grew out of the nuclear sabre-rattling of the Cold War, going all the way back to the early confrontations between Truman and Stalin. No one is better equipped to tell this story than Sherwin, who has devoted his life to thinking about Armageddon, as witnessed by his ground-breaking biography of Robert Oppenheimer. A splendid accomplishment and a great read!” —Michael Dobbs, author of One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War

"Gambling with Armageddon will have a powerful and lasting impact because it does things that no other study does in an area that could not be more significant. Sherwin makes clear that the Cuban missile crisis was not really an aberration but an unsurprising outcome of the history and psychology world leaders brought to the weapons. We also learn how much mere chance—good luck—saved us from world-ending catastrophe. Sherwin has written a book that matters deeply, and has made an elegantly convincing argument for the abolition of nuclear weapons." —Robert Jay Lifton, author of Losing Reality

“This is what happens when one of the pioneers of nuclear history—one who researches broadly, thinks deeply, and writes beautifully—comes to grips with the most dangerous moment in human history. The result gives us a new understanding of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the broader context of the nuclear age and reminds us, even decades later, how dangerous our nuclear arsenals remain. Gambling with Armageddon is essential reading.” —Philip Nash, author of The Other Missiles of October: Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Jupiters, 1957-1963

“Martin Sherwin’s beautiful account shows how the crisis grew out of the brinkmanship of the Cold War. He brings to life the main characters and examines with a marvelous combination of empathy and a critical intelligence, the decisions that Kennedy and Khrushchev faced and the choices they made. This is by far the best book on the crisis and a book of great relevance for today.” —David Holloway, author of Stalin and the Bomb

“It is difficult to believe that there is something fresh to say about the Cuban Missile Crisis. But Martin Sherwin has accomplished this feat. By meticulously reconstructing the decision-making process of October 1962 and placing the crisis fully in the context of Cold War atomic diplomacy he enables us to understand how the world came to the brink of destruction, how unprepared political and military leaders were for the crisis, and how level-headed officials rejected the fantasies of would-be warriors and drew back from disaster. And all this is presented with drama, eloquence, and even humor.” —Eric Foner, author of The Second Founding

“People describe ‘news you can use.’ Well, here’s ‘history you can use.’ Who knew that events 58 years ago could so resonate with events today? And, no doubt, tomorrow. I've read countless tomes on the Cuban Missile Crisis, and wrangled about it personally with Fidel Castro in 1994. But no one has, or could, recite and re-interpret those terrifying days as well as Martin Sherwin. In a nutshell, this is a marvelous book—riveting, revealing, quite remarkable. I stand awed by the scholarship, and the beautiful writing. Though Dr. Sherwin and I differ ideologically (by alot!), I find this book totally fair, and beautifully balanced. So read the book, and you, too, will be educated, entertained, and inspired.” —Kenneth Adelman, Reagan Arms Control Director and author of Reagan at Reykjavik

"Martin Sherwin has set the standard for writing the history of the ultimate weapons, the atomic and nuclear bombs. This book, his magnum opus, exploits U.S., Russian, and other recently opened documents to give the 1945 to early 1962 background, and the potentially cataclysmic debates and diplomatic exchanges of the Cuban missile crisis itself. That crisis continues to be the historical reference point for our current debates about the possibility of nuclear war. The 1962 events produced sleepless nights for Americans, and so can reading this book about how close the Americans and Russians came to creating nuclear winter on earth." —Walter LaFeber, Andrew H. and James S. Tisch Distinguished University Professor, Emeritus, Cornell University

"A page-turning account . . . Offers a masterful reinterpretation of the first decades of the Cold War. Switching perspectives gracefully between American and Soviet officials, going up and down the ranks from statesmen to second lieutenants, Sherwin distills decades of reading, writing, and thinking into a chilling, persuasive&…