The End Is Always Near

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The End Is Always Near Page 23

by Dan Carlin

Huns, 110, 112, 115

  hydrogen bomb (H-bomb)

  Fermi on, 184–185

  NSC-68 and, 188–189

  Oppenheimer and, 186

  strength of, 183, 193

  test of, 193

  Truman and, 185

  Iliad, 29–31

  illness. See also disease; plagues

  routine, as threatening, 137

  smallpox, 54

  in threatening civilization, 137

  toughness and, 9–10

  intellectual fork in the road, 163–164

  invasion theory, 41–42, 44–45

  Iron Age, 32, 56, 80. See also Assyria

  Japan

  atomic bomb and, 155–161, 241

  conventional bombing and, 155–156

  firebombing raids in, 218

  industry among civilians, 239

  Tokyo bombings, 155–156, 217

  Jews, in Middle Ages, 134–135

  Johnson, Samuel, 210

  Kaku, Michio, 177

  Kaplan, Fred, 197

  Kaska, 59

  Kennedy, Jackie, 207

  Kennedy, John F.

  Bay of Pigs and, 202

  Cuban Missile Crisis and, 204–208

  election of, 201, 202

  EXCOMM meetings, 205–206

  Khrushchev and, 203

  televised speech, 207

  U2 photographs and, 204–205

  on Vienna summit, 203

  Kennett, Lee, 226

  Khan, Genghis, 137, 160, 213–214

  Khrushchev, Nikita, 148, 195, 201–202, 203–204, 206–207

  Knell, Hermann, 232

  Korean War

  as “a police action, 190

  as tempting nuclear weapon use, 189

  as test case, 191

  Lady Jane Grey, 20

  Large, David Clay, 228–229

  LeMay, Curtis, 159, 191–192, 198, 235

  Lilienthal, David, 177, 185

  Littman, Robert J., 127

  Livy, 6, 96

  London Blitz, 236–237

  Long Peace, 149

  MacArthur, Douglas, 190, 191, 238–239

  Manhattan project, 153, 196

  Marburg, 140–141

  Marius, Gaius, 100

  Marshall, George, 239

  Marshall Plan, 172

  Medes, 6, 84–85

  megatsunamis, 51–52

  Mellon, 3

  Merneptah, 40

  Middle Ages. See also Black Death

  apprenticeship in, 25

  as barbarous, 17

  feudalistic relationship, 115

  Jews and, 134–135

  religion in, 132

  migration, 43, 44, 48

  military

  globally-focused, 172

  improvement, 150–151

  Japanese, 142

  overextension, 84

  Roman, 92–94, 101, 105, 114

  toughness and, 3–5, 8, 11

  Minoans, 52

  Mittani, 57, 59

  Mongols, 69, 96, 137, 142

  Murrow, Edward R., 161, 209

  Mycenaeans, 32, 42

  Nagasaki, 83, 157–158, 183–184, 198, 212–213

  Napoleon, 151, 212

  National Security Act of 1947, 171–172

  Nazi Germany, 155

  Nineveh. See also Assyria

  defined, 68

  dynastic struggles and, 77

  fall of, 71, 72

  Halzi Gate, 67–68

  population, 68

  Xenophon, 69

  Nixon, Richard, 201, 202

  Nobel, Alfred, 212

  North Africa, 90, 92, 116

  North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 79

  NSC-68, 187–189

  nuclear launch codes, 201

  nuclear weapons. See also atomic bomb

  ancient playbook and, 182

  argument for elimination, 195

  control of, 200

  deterrence, 177–178

  electorate and, 200–201

  Korean War and, 189–191

  opinions on use of, 169

  potential destruction of, 160

  smaller, 193–194

  tactical, 194

  Odyssey, 30

  Ofstie, Ralph A., 174–175

  Operation Barbarossa, 171

  Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 154, 162, 182–183, 186, 194, 239

  Ostrogoths, 91, 110

  pandemics, x, xiii, 129, 144

  parenting. See child-rearing practices

  Parker, Janet, 141

  Patton, George, 4, 169

  Pearl Harbor, 171

  perception, 63–64

  Phrygians, 59

  piracy, 43–44

  Plague of Athens, 127

  Plague of Justinian, 128–129, 130

  plagues. See also Black Death

  Bronze Age collapse and, 54–56

  deaths by, 125

  as God’s will, 131

  Great Pestilence, 135–136

  Greeks, fifth century, 126

  human ripples of pain, 131

  inn Hattusa, 55–56

  modern, consumption levels and, 245

  as septicemic, 129

  Spanish Flu, 137–140

  in systems collapse, 60–61

  victims of, 131

  Planet of the Apes, 28–29, 67

  Plutarch, 6, 101–102

  Pompeii, 68

  population disasters, 135–136

  Poundstone, William, 196

  poverty, toughness and, 3–4, 7–9

  precision airpower, 225

  progress, 27, 63

  psychohistory, 16–17

  Radford, Arthur W., 174

  Ramesses III, 38–39, 40, 42

  RAND Corporation, 197

  “Red Scare,” 195

  resilience, 1, 9, 10

  road to hell, 211

  Roman army

  Adrianople and, 112–115

  functioning in combat, 91–92

  against German armies, 103

  Germanization of, 108–109

  Germans in, 107–108

  numbers in, 92

  Roman Empire

  continuity of occupation, 117

  crisis period of, 109–110

  fall of, 28, 88, 90

  at height, 91

  renewal of, 121–122

  taxing of citizens, 64

  transition of, 90

  “Romano-Britons,” 89

  Romano-Germanic relationship, 105–106, 109–110

  Romans

  “barbarians” and, 28, 94–95

  “blessings of civilization,” 88–89

  Britain and, 88

  casualties inflicted by, 92

  contracts/treaties with tribes, 115

  handling of Germans, 107

  neighboring states at peace with, 93

  Roosevelt, Franklin D., 152, 153, 238

  Rosen, William, 126, 128–129

  Russell, Bertrand, 170–171, 180, 210

  Saint Lebuin, 123

  Sakharov, Andrei, 148

  Saxons, 122–124

  Scandinavia, 97

  Schliemann, Heinrich, 31

  Schlosser, Eric, 174

  scientists and weapons, 151, 153, 160–161

  sea peoples

  Egyptian encounters with, 38–39

  as end to Bronze Age, 40–45

  in historical records, 40–41

  in invasion theory, 41–42, 44–45

  migration and, 43, 44

  piracy and, 43–44

  Sebelius, Kathleen, 142

  Second World War. See also war

  B-17 heavy bombers, 222, 225–226

  casualties of, 215, 238

  Einstein warning before, 152–153

  last year of, 154–155, 214

  LeMay and, 192

  nuclear conflict specter after, 161–162

  public opinion before, 223–224

  toughness and, 4–5

  we
apon technology disparity after, 169

  seismic tsunamis, 51, 53

  Sennacherib, 82, 83, 84

  Shaw, Garry J., 46

  Sherry, Michael S., 161

  Shibayama, Hiroshi, 158

  smallpox, 54–55, 141–142, 144

  societies

  child-rearing practices in, 16, 17–18

  in Total War, 155

  in transition, 27–28

  Southard, Susan, 158

  Soviet Union

  army emphasis, 168

  A-bomb announcement, 180

  in Cold War, 166–167

  Cuba missiles and, 205, 207–208

  hydrogen bomb, 147–148

  land force, 167–168, 179

  nuclear war strategies, 200

  political systems collapse, 62

  Red Army, 170

  “Tsar Bomba,” 148–149

  United States policy and, 176

  war plan against (1951), 194

  war with, as inevitability, 168–169

  Spaight, James, 226–227, 230

  Spanish Flu. See also plagues

  Black Death and, 140

  compressed nature of, 139–140

  deaths, 139, 140

  defined, 137

  first appearance of, 138

  globalization and, 138–139

  speed and scope of spreading, 138

  as unknown before appearance, 143

  Sparta, 7–9

  Sparta of Leonidas, 31

  Stalin, Joseph, 176, 178, 190, 193

  Starr, Chester G., 7, 8, 41–42

  state terrorism, 74

  Stimson, Henry, 169, 216, 239

  stock market crash (1929), 3

  Strategic Air Command (SAC), 173

  strategic bombing, 192, 223, 234, 241

  submarines, 219

  “Super, the,” 183, 184, 193. See also hydrogen bomb

  superweapons, 152, 153, 160

  “Surrender” leaflets, 221

  sword of Damocles, 200, 243

  systems collapse

  Bronze Age, 60–61

  modern theory on, 62–63

  political, Soviet Union, 62

  Tacitus, 101–102, 104–105

  tactical nuclear weapons, 194

  Tainter, Joseph, 64

  Tambora volcano, 49–50

  Teutons, 98–99, 100, 103

  Thera eruption, 50–52

  thermonuclear weapons, 183, 193. See also hydrogen bomb

  Tiglath-Pileser III, 77

  Total War, 155, 214, 217, 241

  toughness

  Afghans and, 12

  Assyrians and, 72

  boxer example, 2

  civilized refinement and, 11

  concept, 2

  in history, 3–5

  illness and, 9–10

  measuring, 5

  military and, 11–12

  poverty and, 3–4, 7–9

  resiliency and, 1, 9

  Spartans and, 7–9

  war and, 2–3, 4–5, 9, 13

  Trajan, 105

  transition, societies in, 27–28

  Trinity test, 154, 155, 160

  Trojan War, 56

  Troy, 30, 31

  Truman, Harry S.

  atomic bomb and, 156–157

  firing MacArthur and, 191

  geopolitical situation and, 181–182

  hydrogen bomb and, 185

  on Korean War, 190

  NSC-68 and, 187–189

  nuclear bluff game, 176

  on Potsdam meeting, 216–217

  after Soviet A-bomb test, 182–183

  use of superweapons and, 164–165

  Truman Doctrine, 171

  “Tsar Bomba,” 148–149

  tsunamis, 51–54

  Tuchman, Barbara, xiii, 131, 136

  Tucker, M. J., 20

  United States

  atomic blitz strategy, 173–174

  in Cold War, 167

  deterrence, 177–178

  military strategy, 174

  NSC-68 and, 187–189

  nuclear tests, 204

  nuclear war strategies, 200

  pessimism and decision making, 168–169

  SAC development, 172–173

  Valens, 110

  Valentinian III, 115–116

  Vandals, 90, 116

  Varus, Publius Quinctilius, 103–104

  Verne, Jules, 220

  Vikings, 97, 124

  violence, children exposure to, 22–24

  Visigoths, 90, 111, 116

  Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI), 50

  volcanos, 49–52

  von Neumann, John, 196–197

  war. See also specific wars

  civilization-destroying outcomes, 159–160

  combat pressures of, 214

  commanders in, 214–215

  global thermonuclear, 204

  gods of, 214

  nuclear, 158–159

  with Soviet Union, as inevitability, 168–169

  Total, 155, 214, 217, 241

  toughness and, 4–5, 9, 13

  warfare

  Assyrian, 56–59

  in Bronze Age collapse, 42, 56–60

  change of rules in, 219

  food crisis and, 48

  land, new technology in, 219

  modern, rules of, 213

  weapons. See also specific weapons

  bombers as humane, 236

  First World War, 152, 219

  game-changing, 189

  new, on human level, 165

  scientists and, 151, 153, 160–161

  Second World War, 152–161

  submarines, 219

  superweapon, 152, 153, 160

  technology, 150, 164

  Wells, H. G., 145, 220, 222

  Wells, Peter, 117

  wet nurses, 24–25

  Wickham, Chris, 91

  Wiener, Malcolm H., 48

  Willis, Garry, 156–157, 165, 171

  Wilson, Woodrow, 221, 222

  wizards of Armageddon, 197–199

  wombs of nations, 96, 97

  World Health Organization (WHO), 141, 142

  World War III, xiii, 45, 158–159, 176, 178–179, 190, 192

  Xenophon, 69–71,

  About the Author

  DAN CARLIN is a pioneering podcaster and the king of long-form audio content. In his Hardcore History shows, which sometimes last over six hours, Carlin humanizes the past and forces the audience to “walk a mile in that other guy’s historical moccasins.” Hardcore History has been downloaded over one hundred million times.

  Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

  Copyright

  THE END IS ALWAYS NEAR. Copyright © 2019 by Dan Carlin Ventures LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Cover image © flubydust/Getty Images

  first edition

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Carlin, Dan, 1965- author.

  Title: The end is always near : apocalyptic moments, from the Bronze Age collapse to nuclear near misses / Dan Carlin.

  Description: First edition. | New York, NY : HarperCollins Publishers, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “A journey back in time that explores what happened — and what could have happened — from creator of the wildly-popular podcast Hardcore History and 2019 winner of the iHeartRadio Best History Podcast Award”— Provided by publisher.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2019028462 (print) | LCCN 201
9028463 (ebook) | ISBN 9780062868046 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780062868060 (ebook)

  Subjects: LCSH: World history. | Imaginary histories. | Civilization—History.

  Classification: LCC D21.3 .C247 2019 (print) | LCC D21.3 (ebook) | DDC 904—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019028462

  LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019028463

  Digital Edition OCTOBER 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-286806-0

  Version 10172019

  Print ISBN: 978-0-06-286804-6

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  * This is also the job of the historian. Often journalism and history have a somewhat interconnected/symbiotic relationship as journalists write of current events and then historians mine their work later as primary sources. Often journalists then use the work of historians to tell stories of the past that the historians unearthed, as we are doing here.

  * My background is in journalism, and while a true professional should be able to get just as excited covering a a dog show as a war, neither I nor most of my colleagues could do this. Judging from the ratings bumps that occur in news with huge events, it seems many people outside of journalism feel the same way about the “Big Stories.” History, like news, has its big stories and sometimes “if it bleeds it leads” is a phrase that applies to both.

  * In many earlier eras of history writing, a large part of the historian’s or author’s goal was to impart or teach some sort of moral lesson, usually by historical example.

  * Especially when you broaden it out to focus not just on individuals, but on whole societies.

 

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