Dark Beyond Darkness

In Dark Beyond Darkness, James Blight and janet Lang, among the world's foremost authorities on the Cuban missile crisis, synthesize the findings from their thirty-year project on the most dangerous moment in recorded history. Authoritative, accessible, and written with their usual flair and wit, DBD is the first book to take readers deeply inside the experience and calculations of Fidel Castro, who was willing to martyr Cuba if his new Russian ally would nuke the U.S. and destroy it. Blight and Lang have established that in October 1962, the world was on the brink of Armageddon, and that we escaped by luck. Their history is scary but unimpeachably accurate: we just barely escaped the cold and the dark in October 1962. Their history also comes with a warning: we are currently at risk not only of Armageddon-fast, in a war between superpowers, but Armageddon-in-Slow-Motion (the result a climate catastrophe following a regional nuclear war), and from Armageddon, Oops! (a conflict sparked by an accident, which is misinterpreted, and ends in nuclear war). Drawing on the insights of poets, musicians and novelists, as well as climate scientists and agronomists, they show the terrible risk we run by refusing to abolish nuclear weapons.

James G. Blight, janet M. Lang

Authors' Note Prologue:Armageddon in Retrospect: On the Road with Papa & The Boy Part One: Dark Chapter 1: Shit (Almost) Happened in October 1962: The Struggle to Avoid Armageddon Involves the Struggle of Memory Against Forgetting. Chapter 2: The Bullshit: Bad Guys Threaten; Good Guys Stand Firm; Good Guys Win; Bad Guys Lose; the Little Guy Doesn't Matter; JFK's Moxie Prevails. Chapter 3: The Truth: Big Guys Ignore Little Guy; Feeling Doomed, Little Guy Throws Caution to the Wind, Starts Shooting, and Asks Big Friend to Nuke the U.S.; Armageddon Nearly Occurs. Part Two: Darker Chapter 4: Habitable History: How Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall Became the Template for a "WABAC" Machine for the Cuban Missile Crisis. Chapter 5: Be Robert McNamara: Bringing the Abolition Message Home, With (and Without) "Maximum Bob" Chapter 6: Be Fidel Castro: A Leader at the Hinge of the World. Part Three: Darkest Chapter 7: Armageddon in Slow Motion: More Bullshit and Truth about Avoiding Armageddon in the 21st Century. Chapter 8: Armageddon Oops! Nuclear War via Mechanical and/or Human Screw-up. Chapter 9: On The Road Again Via Climate Catastrophe: From a 19th Century Volcanic Eruption to a 21st Century Nuclear Winter. Part Four: The Darkness Defined and Defied (via the Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis) Chapter 10: Be Anybody WABAC: Empathy, Not Sympathy is the Key. Chapter 11: Darkness Visible:Findings, Takeaways and Imperatives of the Cuban Missile Crisis Chapter 12: The Black Saturday Manifesto: Abolishing Nuclear Weapons One Anniversary Per Year, For As Long As It Takes. Epilogue:Show Us Your Darkness: Warning Given! Warning Received? Acknowledgments Permissions & Credits Notes Index About the Authors