Strange Stability

Strange Stability is an immensely important contribution to the history of Cold War science. Benjamin Wilson has written perhaps the first truly historical account of the role of liberal defense scientists in the arms race, arguing that they were effectively co-opted by the defense complex that they ostensibly set out to restrain. This is a solid, well-written, and provocative work of myth-busting scholarship, and a cautionary tale of collaboration and self-deception.–Alex Wellerstein, author of Restricted DataThe opaque world of nuclear strategy comes alive in Benjamin Wilson’s fascinating Strange Stability. By following the money as well as the science, and by making his case through careful research rather than sensational conspiracy theories, Wilson shows the military-industrial complex in a garish new light. In graceful prose and with a gift for storytelling, he dramatically pulls back the curtain of the national security state.–Andrew Preston, author of Total DefenseBenjamin Wilson does something remarkable in Strange Stability. He shows how emerging mavens of nuclear strategy ported over concepts from unrelated fields, then wreathed them with mathematical formulas. Making a ‘science’ of nuclear deterrence, liberal experts managed to advocate for perpetual investment in research for bigger and better bombs while arguing that those same weapons should never be deployed. Even the peaceniks, Wilson shows, were heavily invested in the military industry.–Kate Brown, author of Plutopia

Benjamin Wilson is Associate Professor of History of Science at Harvard University.