Nuclear weapons have not been used in anger since the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Yet even after the Cold War, the Bomb is still the greatest threat facing humankind. As President Bill Clinton's first secretary of defence, Les Aspin, put it: 'The Cold War is over, the Soviet Union is no more. But the post-Cold War world is decidedly not post-nuclear'. For all the efforts to reduce nuclear stockpiles,...

This work documents the evolution of warfare across history through weaponry and technological change.

"A riveting narrative of the Atomic Age--from x-rays and Marie Curie to the Nevada Test Site and the 2011 meltdown in Japan--written by the prizewinning and bestselling author of Rocket Men. Radiation is a complex and paradoxical concept: staggering amounts of energy flow from seemingly inert rock and that energy is both useful and dangerous. While nuclear energy affects our everyday lives--from nuclear medicine and food irradiation to microwave technology--its...

"World War I completely changed how wars were fought. It was the first major conflict to use planes, tanks, and certain kinds of chemical weapons. Readers expand their knowledge of "the war to end all wars" with this high-interest look at the technology that made an Allied victory possible. As readers learn impressive facts about various pieces of military technology, they enhance their understanding of social studies and STEM topics. Fact boxes and...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The “master storyteller” (San Francisco Chronicle) behind the New York Times bestseller The Spy and the Traitor uncovers the true story behind one of the Cold War’s most intrepid spies.
“[An] immensely exciting, fast-moving account.”—The Washington Post
 
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Foreign Affairs, Kirkus...

"The Vietnam War was a complicated and controversial conflict, and readers take a focused look at this chapter in world history through the lens of the military technology used in this war. From the advent of assault rifles to the use of chemical weapons, many of these technological advances have spurred heated debates over time, but readers discover the facts about them in an unbiased way. In addition, photographs of helicopters, planes, and other...

George Koval was born in Iowa. In 1932, his parents, Russian Jews who had emigrated because of anti-Semitism, decided to return home to live out their socialist ideals. George, who was as committed to socialism as they were, went with them. It was there that he was recruited by the Soviet Army as a spy and returned to the US in 1940. A gifted science student, he enrolled at Columbia University, where he knew scientists soon to join the Manhattan Project,...