The Worlds of Herman Kahn: The Intuitive Science of Thermonuclear War

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 432 pages
• Published by: Harvard University Press
• Edition: 1st Edition April 22, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0674017145
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0674017146
• Book Dimensions: 8 x 5.7 x 1.6 inches
• Weighs: 1 pounds

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Herman Kahn is perhaps best known (to those who know of him at all) as the model for Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. In fact, this physicist turned defense analyst achieved notoriety in the 1950s and '60s by articulating a vision of what a postnuclear-war world might look like, arguing that since it might be possible to survive a nuclear war, it was essential to plan to do just that. Ghamari-Tabrizi is superb at providing, in compelling narrative, the cultural context for Kahn, his work and some of his more outlandish statements. As Ghamari-Tabrizi describes him, Kahn, first at RAND and then at the Hudson Institute (the think tank he founded in 1961), dared to talk about all aspects of nuclear warfare and ways of keeping the nuclear peace, at a time when his approach to such topics was taboo. He was vilified for his beliefs and, as the author so capably demonstrates, he seemed to love every second of it. Ghamari-Tabrizi integrates popular culture, such as the parodies of Tom Lehrer, with the dramatic shift in military culture as civilian defense analysts and game theorists began to increase their influence at the Pentagon at the expense of the more traditional military personnel. Throughout, we are reminded how little the U.S. actually knew about what the Soviets were doing and thinking—and how "uncertainty becomes the wellspring of extravagant threat scenarios." Ghamari-Tabrizi provides a fascinating look at a complex man—at once "visionary" and "quixotic"—who was thinking, as the author says, about the unthinkable. 43 b&w photographs not seen by PW. (Apr.)
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From Booklist
Herman Kahn (1922-83) was a cold war original whose notoriously sensational ideas, embodied in his On Thermonuclear War (1960), were later satirized in Dr. Strangelove. Though the inspiration for the movie's namesake character, the real Kahn could not have been less menacing. A rotund, joke--cracking extrovert, the loquacious Kahn reveled in prodding presumptions that nuclear war was too horrible to contemplate. The contrast between Kahn's joviality and his apologia for global genocide is one of the worlds of Kahn that Ghamari-Tabrizi surveys. Others are Kahn's think-tank society of civilian defense intellectuals and their simulations of warfare, and her consideration of Kahn's ruminations about waging and surviving nuclear war "as a style, a mood, and an aesthetic." If it seems strange to treat theories of nuclear warfare as an art form, the fantastical scenarios that Kahn batted around justify Ghamari-Tabrizi's approach. Her exploration of Kahn falls in line with the contemporary fad for demented comedy, and a Ghamari-Tabrizi unbounded by a political-science stricture will attract readership beyond the wonks. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Reader Reviews
In today's new age of nuclear terrorism, it is vital that those responsible for security understand how yesterday's "Cold War" thinkers viewed the possibility of nuclear war. The most important of those Cold War thinkers was Herman Kahn. Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi has written an absolutely brilliant profile of the oversized multifaceted personality of Kahn, a personality so powerful that he brought out the very worst in the military and academia. Kahn authored the ground-breaking work "On Thermonuclear War" (1961) a book which, in exquisitely painful detail theorizes how such a terrible war might be fought, and even "won." It was a book and a thesis which provoked remarkable response. From the left there was the vituperation of James Newman in the pages of the prestigious magazine Scientific American who could viciously ask, "Is there really a Herman Kahn?" There were plaudits from the left as well, including A. J. Muste, Socialist Norman Thomas and, Betrand Russell. Mostly, alas, brickbats and hate mail from the "liberal establishment," which Kahn considered himself a card carrying member. The right didn't know what to make of him. Kahn loved hanging around (and tormenting) top military brass, and at the same time spend time with Abbie Hoffman and take -- and enjoy LSD. He was World War Three's Lenny Bruce. Ghamari-Tabrizi has entitled her book "The Worlds..." and added a subtitle which incorporates the idea that developing scenarios for a nuclear war was, at heart, intuitive. She expands this profile of the man, into a full and thoughtful investigation of the scenario, the war "game" based on the role playing war games. War gaming as it is known -- allows the players to imagine how nuclear war would develop, to use simulation to think about how it might be fought, and yes, how it might be won. (And yes, Kahn went so far as to conceive the possibility of a "Doomsday" bomb -- immortalized in Stanley Kubrick's film, "Dr. Strangelove." Kahn's huge genius lay in his ability to stare directly at and analyze anything, "When [U.S. military] officers objected that Kahn was ill-equipped to speak on military affairs," Ghamari-Tabrizi writes, "he'd shoot back, 'How many thermonuclear wars have you fought recently?' Aside from war games, they admitted, they had no actual experience with these weapons. 'O.K., Kahn would grin, 'Then we start out even.'" Ghamari-Tabrizi also provides social and psychological contexts in which to evaluate the man and his work. This book belongs on the book shelf of anyone today worried about nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism, which is to say any sentient adult. The same can be said of the rest of Kahn's work -- most especially "Thinking About the Unthinkable," "On Escalation," "Things to Come," and "The Year 2000" stunning in its insights when you realize it was published in 1967! I had two occasions to visit the think tank he created, the Hudson Institute, from which he developed all of his work following "On Thermonuclear War" as well as some occasions in which we just met and talked. He delighted in challenging any unthought out shibboleth. One left his company with a headache and a desire to rethink everything you had previously believed. Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi deserves our heartfelt gratitude for her 387 page work bringing this man, his theories and his personality to life. Herman Kahn has been too long forgotten. Comment | | (Report this)