War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda-Fast Shipping

Description

In this important and revelatory book, Jonathan Tucker, a leading expert on chemicaland biological weapons, chronicles the lethal history of chemical warfare from WorldWar I to the present.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the rise of syntheticchemistry made the large-scale use of toxic chemicals on the battlefield both feasibleand cheap. Tucker explores the long debate over the military utility and moralityof chemical warfare, from the first chlorine gas attack at Ypres in 1915 to Hitler’sreluctance to use nerve agents (he believed, incorrectly, that the U.S. could retaliatein kind) to Saddam Hussein’s gassing of his own people, and concludes with the emergentthreat of chemical terrorism. Moving beyond history to the twenty-first century, War of Nerves makes clear that we are at a crossroads that could lead either to thefurther spread of these weapons or to their ultimate abolition.