The End Is Always Near by Dan Carlin

The End Is Always Near

Apocalyptic Moments, From the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses

Dan Carlin, Harper

HarperCollins · Print & ebook · October 29, 2019

Now a New York Times Bestseller.

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Who it’s for
Accessible history that treats catastrophe as a recurring human problem, not a special effect.
Genres
Civilizations, Nuclear Warfare, Futures & Foresight
Published
HarperCollins, October 29, 2019

About this book

Now a New York Times Bestseller. The creator of the wildly popular award-winning podcast Hardcore History looks at some of the apocalyptic moments from the past as a way to frame the challenges of the future. Do tough times create tougher people? Can humanity handle the power of its weapons without destroying itself? Will human technology or capabilities ever peak or regress?

Continue reading

No one knows the answers to such questions, but no one asks them in a more interesting way than Dan Carlin. In The End is Always Near, Dan Carlin looks at questions and historical events that force us to consider what sounds like fantasy; that we might suffer the same fate that all previous eras did. Will our world ever become a ruin for future archaeologists to dig up and explore? The questions themselves are both philosophical and like something out of The Twilight Zone. Combining his trademark mix of storytelling, history and weirdness Dan Carlin connects the past and future in fascinating and colorful ways. At the same time the questions he asks us to consider involve the most important issue imaginable: human survival. From the collapse of the Bronze Age to the challenges of the nuclear era the issue has hung over humanity like a persistent Sword of Damocles. Inspired by his podcast, The End is Always Near challenges the way we look at the past and ourselves. In this absorbing compendium, Carlin embarks on a whole new set of stories and major cliffhangers that will keep readers enthralled. Idiosyncratic and erudite, offbeat yet profound, The End is Always Near examines issues that are rarely presented, and makes the past immediately relevant to our very turbulent present.

Near Misses

Accessible history that treats catastrophe as a recurring human problem, not a special effect.

Come here for

  • Big-history sweep, from ancient collapse to nuclear near misses
  • Straight talk with a sturdy sense of doom

Expect

  • Insight over sentimentality
  • Clear, serious narration

Where it sits

Futures & Foresight41%
Civilizations36%
Nuclear Warfare35%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Nuclear Warfare
  • World History
  • Civilizations
  • History Writing
Show all 8 publisher categories
  • Philosophy Overviews
  • Political Philosophy
  • Political History & Ideas
  • Political Writing
Authors
Dan Carlin, Harper
Publisher
HarperCollins
Published
October 29, 2019
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
Nuclear Warfare