''The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy'' is a 2009 book written by
David E. Hoffman, a ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
'' contributing editor. It was the winner of the 2010
Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
The Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are awarded annually for the "Letters, Drama, and Music" category. The award is given to a nonfiction book written by an American author and published duri ...
.
The book is based on a large number of published and unpublished sources, including interviews with political leaders, scientists, military officials and diplomats. The Russian automatic nuclear-control system known as "
Dead Hand
Dead Hand (russian: Система «Периметр», , lit. "Perimeter" System, with the GRAU Index 15E601, Cyrillic: 15Э601), also known as Perimeter, is a Cold War-era automatic nuclear weapons-control system (similar in concept to the A ...
" is described in detail.
See also
* ''
Dr. Strangelove
''Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'', known simply and more commonly as ''Dr. Strangelove'', is a 1964 black comedy film that satirizes the Cold War fears of a nuclear conflict between the Soviet Union and t ...
''
External links
*
Review in ''New York Times''Discussion on ''The Dead Hand'' with Hoffman, Woodrow Wilson International Center, October 19, 2009Discussion on ''The Dead Hand'' with Hoffman, National Book Festival, September 25, 2010
Home page for The Dead Hand
Article
by Peter Preston in the ''Guardian''
Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction-winning works
2009 non-fiction books
Doubleday (publisher) books
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