This book basically explains from the author's point of view what he felt would be the effects of a nuclear war on the United States. Written during a time where the threat of nuclear warfare with the Russians was omnipresent and when much of the population still had etched in memory the horrors of its effects on Japan, Pat Frank writes vividly on not only the physical struggle, but the emotional struggle to survive and overcome the terrible setbacks forced by the bombs. At first man struggles with the basic shortages of gasoline and food, but eventually much deeper problems set in. The author details vividly the set in of radiation poisoning, illness due to lack of certain vitamins and salt, and a multitude of other physiological problems that a world suddenly shut off from all modern conveniences would experience. This great deprivation only leads in to the animal-like behavior that such desperation spawns, and thus "the law of the jungle reigned...."
             This book had great meaning to me not only because it struck fear in me, but also a certain degree of thankfulness and hopefulness that the world we know today is not balancing on such a delicate line between peace and world disaster. This book became a great way for me to understand what had once been foreign to me, and make such a horrible topic so easy to read. It made me wish everyone would become so educated and fully understand, and gain a healthy respect, for all types of nuclear chemistry, not just the automatic connection made to nuclear war.
             I would have probably been greatly bored by any book that didn't bring some sort of fiction element into its discussion. I don't think such feeling could possibly be expressed if I had not been forced to imagine nuclear holocaust in my own future, and instead just shown it through someone else's past. At first, infact, I thought maybe this book was not relevant for a chemistry book. However, the more I thought about it, the more I ...