Book Review
Dark Beyond Darkness
James G. Blight and Janet M.Lang
Rowman & Littlefield (2018)
Having been directly and personally involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis as a SAC Combat Crew officer I was immediately interested in reading this new offering on the topic. The Cuban Missile Crisis seems to be a matter of continuing interest in spite of having happened 56 years ago this month. If you are, like me, concerned that we have in the White House today someone who says things like, “We have all these beautiful nuclear weapons – why don’t we use them?”, this book is an important read and one you will want to recommend to those you know who don’t take the matter seriously.
Blight and Lang take the matter seriously and in an interesting literary style rendering the matter immediate and personal. There is no such thing as a nuclear war in which there will be a winner. The entire planet will lose putting all forms of life in jeopardy. This not a matter of speculation and the word “Doomsday” was invented to describe the outcome of such stupidity. The book describes itself as being a History, a Warning, and a Catalyst. In my reading it is all of these things. It is what I call a “Pass It On” warning and an effective one at that.
Take my word for it. There will be no winners in a nuclear war. Not you, not me, and not the planet. The Blight/Langs are teachers, this book is both a warning and a teaching.
Schools and Society 