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Abyss
- The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
- Narrated by: John Hopkins
- Length: 19 hrs and 12 mins
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Publisher's Summary
A Times History Book of the Year 2022
From the #1 bestselling historian Max Hastings ‘the heart-stopping story of the missile crisis’ Daily Telegraph
The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was the most perilous event in history, when mankind faced a looming nuclear collision between the United States and Soviet Union. During those weeks, the world gazed into the abyss of potential annihilation.
Max Hastings’s graphic new history tells the story from the viewpoints of national leaders, Russian officers, Cuban peasants, American pilots and British disarmers. Max Hastings deploys his accustomed blend of eye-witness interviews, archive documents and diaries, White House tape recordings, top-down analysis, first to paint word-portraits of the Cold War experiences of Fidel Castro’s Cuba, Nikita Khrushchev’s Russia and Kennedy’s America; then to describe the nail-biting Thirteen Days in which Armageddon beckoned.
Hastings began researching this book believing that he was exploring a past event from twentieth century history. He is as shocked as are millions of us around the world, to discover that the rape of Ukraine gives this narrative a hitherto unimaginable twenty-first century immediacy. We may be witnessing the onset of a new Cold War between nuclear-armed superpowers.
To contend with today’s threat, which Hastings fears will prove enduring, it is critical to understand how, sixty years ago, the world survived its last glimpse into the abyss. Only by fearing the worst, he argues, can our leaders hope to secure the survival of the planet.
What the critics say
‘Grabs from the get-go… as if this were the very best fiction’ Daily Mail
‘A brilliant, beautifully constructed and thrilling re-assessment of the most perilous moment in history’ Daily Telegraph
‘Frightening but hopelessly addictive’ The Times
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What listeners say about Abyss
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- David Brown
- 2023-04-12
Excellent book
I have read many books about the Cuban missile crisis and thought I was aware of how things evolved. I was wrong about many things. Max Hastings does a fine job with his analysis and fresh insights. Great book!
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- paul summerville
- 2022-11-02
Be Afraid
Hastings crafts a wonderfully chilling warning for the 21st century with this history. Highly recommend.
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