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Reviews tagging 'Violence'
The End is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses by Dan Carlin
3 reviews
kealajaye's review
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
I really loved the concept of this book and the majority of it was really thought provoking! I especially liked the chapter about plagues, as I was reading this post-COVID-19 and it was interesting to read Dan’s speculation about how a new disease might affect humanity. The only thing that stopped me from giving this book a higher rating was the fact that the last two chapters (which felt longer than any other chapters) were entirely about World War 2. It’s clear that Dan is a WWII buff and it was all interesting information, but I thought that the other chapters in this book did a much better job of applying history to futuristic speculation, while these final chapters were just a history lesson.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and War
bibliomania_express's review
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
The End is Always Near by Dan Carlin is a fascinating glimpse through history at some near "apocalyptic" events and musings on how our own society might end. It tackles the concept of "toughness", childhood and violence, wars throughout history, epidemics and medical developments, and moral dilemmas surrounding Total War.
I enjoyed the first half of this book more than the second, mainly for the fact that the last two chapter focus almost entirely on WWII, the atomic bomb, and aerial warfare. Which, in a book this short, is a lot of space. It makes sense that war is such a large focus of this book, but the examples are also rather limited and eurocentric, including the earlier focus on the ancient Mediterranean "Dark Ages" and the "fall" of the Roman empire.
I liked the moments when Carlin discussed the concept of "toughness" and complicated the idea that techological progress correlates to better societies.
This book also suffered just for its publication timing. It was published at the end of 2019, and therefore the entire chapter on epidemics and disease was immediately out of date. Although it did highlight how much of the COVID-19 pandemic echoed historical epidemics and outcomes were easily predictable - and therefore how ridiculous it was that governments failed to react in a thoughtful and timely manner.
The pacing of the book was also bogged down by how long the chapters are. They could have used subheadings to break up the text. As I mentioned, the chapter on nuclear war was especially long, which made it feel like a slog to get through.
Overall, I found that Carlin had some fascinating ideas, and the historical incidents he recounts through an apocalyptic lens were interesting, but a bit of low-hanging fruit, examples-wise. I am interested in checking out his podcats though.
I enjoyed the first half of this book more than the second, mainly for the fact that the last two chapter focus almost entirely on WWII, the atomic bomb, and aerial warfare. Which, in a book this short, is a lot of space. It makes sense that war is such a large focus of this book, but the examples are also rather limited and eurocentric, including the earlier focus on the ancient Mediterranean "Dark Ages" and the "fall" of the Roman empire.
I liked the moments when Carlin discussed the concept of "toughness" and complicated the idea that techological progress correlates to better societies.
This book also suffered just for its publication timing. It was published at the end of 2019, and therefore the entire chapter on epidemics and disease was immediately out of date. Although it did highlight how much of the COVID-19 pandemic echoed historical epidemics and outcomes were easily predictable - and therefore how ridiculous it was that governments failed to react in a thoughtful and timely manner.
The pacing of the book was also bogged down by how long the chapters are. They could have used subheadings to break up the text. As I mentioned, the chapter on nuclear war was especially long, which made it feel like a slog to get through.
Overall, I found that Carlin had some fascinating ideas, and the historical incidents he recounts through an apocalyptic lens were interesting, but a bit of low-hanging fruit, examples-wise. I am interested in checking out his podcats though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, and Gore
Moderate: Child abuse
efg3's review
informative
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War, Colonisation, Death, Genocide, Xenophobia, Murder, and Slavery
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