EP34 Atomic Accountability

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the economic history of Nazi Germany, highlighting how economic constraints and strategies influenced Hitler's decisions and the outcome of World War II. Tooze argues that Hitler's aggression was a response to the rise of the United States as a global hegemon and Germany's relative economic poverty. The book details the rapid mobilization of Germany's economy for war, the use of slave labor, and the impact of strategic bombing campaigns. It challenges several myths about the Nazi economy, including the idea of an armaments miracle under Albert Speer and the potential for greater mobilization of women in the war economy.

In this book, Daniel Ellsberg chronicles his experiences as a nuclear war planner during the Cold War, revealing shocking details about the delegation of authority to initiate nuclear attacks, secret plans for general nuclear war, and the precarious nature of nuclear strategy. The book is divided into two parts: the first part is a memoir/confession of Ellsberg's intellectual and moral evolution, while the second part adopts a more academic perspective, analyzing the principles of 'just war' policy and the consequences of nuclear exchanges. Ellsberg argues that little has changed in nuclear policy since the Eisenhower and Kennedy years and offers feasible steps to dismantle the 'doomsday machine' and avoid nuclear catastrophe.