The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses

David Colborne reviewed The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses by Dan Carlin

And then 2020 happened

3 stars

In this book, Dan Carlin, host of the "Hardcore History" podcast, walks the reader through several possible disasters that struck civilizations in the past — or, in the case of nuclear Armageddon, nearly did. Pandemics made the list as a seemingly near-unthinkable option; naturally, history demonstrated its sense of humor by bringing COVID-19 to everyone's awareness months after the book was published.

In many respects, this book reads like one of his podcast episodes, with several asides sprinkled in as footnotes. Sources are present but rarely referred to directly, which also matches the approach of his podcast.

If you like "Hardcore History" enough to want to read one of his scripts without listening to him read it to you, this book is for you. Personally, I prefer his audio work.

David Colborne reviewed The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses by Dan Carlin

And then 2020 happened

3 stars

In this book, Dan Carlin, host of the "Hardcore History" podcast, walks the reader through several possible disasters that struck civilizations in the past — or, in the case of nuclear Armageddon, nearly did. Pandemics made the list as a seemingly near-unthinkable option; naturally, history demonstrated its sense of humor by bringing COVID-19 to everyone's awareness months after the book was published.

In many respects, this book reads like one of his podcast episodes, with several asides sprinkled in as footnotes. Sources are present but rarely referred to directly, which also matches the approach of his podcast.

If you like "Hardcore History" enough to want to read one of his scripts without listening to him read it to you, this book is for you. Personally, I prefer his audio work.

Jakers reviewed The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses by Dan Carlin

A bit less focused than the show...

4 stars

...but still a good listen on audiobook. It's like an 8 hour show covering a VERY broad range of very interesting topics relating to the question "what causes a society to collapse?" There's some real bangers in there, and I thought one of the best was "does abusing children lead to a more fragile society?"

The downside is with such a broad range, you don't get a lot of the detail that you get from the show, which typically focuses on one historical narrative rather than a broad question (with the exception of the Blitz or Addendum episodes). And a lot of the things that are detailed are either later topics focused in modernity or topics we've heard a bunch about, like the Greeks, Romans, Huns, etc.

The narration is good, though it's almost the same cadence that he uses in the show when he's quoting someone else, and then …

...but still a good listen on audiobook. It's like an 8 hour show covering a VERY broad range of very interesting topics relating to the question "what causes a society to collapse?" There's some real bangers in there, and I thought one of the best was "does abusing children lead to a more fragile society?"

The downside is with such a broad range, you don't get a lot of the detail that you get from the show, which typically focuses on one historical narrative rather than a broad question (with the exception of the Blitz or Addendum episodes). And a lot of the things that are detailed are either later topics focused in modernity or topics we've heard a bunch about, like the Greeks, Romans, Huns, etc.

The narration is good, though it's almost the same cadence that he uses in the show when he's quoting someone else, and then when someone is quoted in the audiobook, he -really- throws himself into it.

But, all-in-all, it's like an 8 hour Blitz episode. I enjoyed it, but I'm also a massive DC fanboy.

Richard

rated it

Dec. 8, 2019

Matthijs

rated it

Dec. 30, 2019