Overview
Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon The US-Soviet arms race, told through the story of a colorful and visionaryAmerican Air Force officer-melding biography, history, world affairs, and science to transportthe reader back and forth from individual drama to world stage. ""Compulsively readable and important.""-The New York Times Book Review In this never-before-told story, Neil Sheehan-winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award -- details American Air Force officer Bernard Schriever's quest to prevent the Soviet Union from acquiring nuclear superiority, and describes American efforts to develop the unstoppable nuclear-weapon delivery system, the intercontinental ballistic missile, the first weapons meant to deter an atomic holocaust rather than to be fired in anger. In a sweeping narrative, Sheehan brings to life a huge cast of some of the most intriguing characters of the cold war, including the brilliant physicist John Von Neumann, and the hawkish Air Force general, Curtis LeMay.
Full Product Details
Author: Neil Sheehan
Publisher: Random House USA Inc
Imprint: Random House Inc
Dimensions:
Width: 13.30cm
, Height: 3.20cm
, Length: 20.20cm
Weight: 0.492kg
ISBN: 9780679745495
ISBN 10: 0679745491
Pages: 576
Publication Date: 05 October 2010
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Inactive
Availability: In Print
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.
Reviews
<p>“Excellent. . . . Deeply researched, compulsively readable and important.”<br>— The New York Times Book Review <br>“An important contribution to our understanding of those decades when the U.S. and U.S.S.R. held each other—and the world—in a balance of terror. . . . Engrossing.”<br>— Los Angeles Times <br>“Utterly riveting reading. . . . Schriever is a fascinating person, and Sheehan [is] to be commended for his careful gathering of interviews and documents to put flesh on this most unexpected warrior.”<br>— San Francisco Chronicle <br>“Even more thoroughly researched, bristling with facts and figures and faces, than A Bright Shining Lie. ”<br>— San Antonio Express-News <br>“A deep look at American defensive thinking in the Cold War. . . . Sheehan’s book is rich in cultural detail, beyond iconic moments of the Cold War as refracted through the lens of the missile race.”<br>&mda
Author Information
Neil Sheehan is the author ofA Bright Shining Lie, which won the National Book Award in 1988 and the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1989. He spent three years in Vietnam as a war correspondent for United Press International andThe New York Timesand won numerous awards for his reporting. In 1971 he obtained the Pentagon Papers, which broughtThe New York Timesthe Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for meritorious public service. He died in 2021.
