Churchill may have declared ‘this is not even the beginning of the end,’ but Ron Rosenbaum’s book will aim to inform us How The End Begins (March, Simon & Schuster). The Cold War is over but the threat of destruction by nuclear weapons sure isn’t, and with Trident renewal still up for debate, this may be an important book.
Meanwhile Atomic Postcards (April, Intellect) reproduces postcard images of test explosions and the like, complete with their handwritten messages, dating from Hiroshima to the fall of the Berlin Wall. ‘A fascinating glimpse of a time when the end of the world seemed close at hand,’ the publisher says. Perfect for the coffee table in your fall-out shelter.
John Gray’s The Immortalization Commission (January, Allen Lane) may not offer much comfort, for it will no doubt shine Gray’s bleak brand of scepticism on humanity’s ‘strange quest to cheat death.’ The combination of science, philosophy, and politics is what modernity is all about. 2011 will just see us hurtling on, in the same direction.
