Dark Beyond Darkness is the first book to take readers deeply inside the experience and calculations of leaders during the Cuban Missile Crisis and to connect that crisis to the nuclear risk today, whether from war between superpowers, climate catastrophe following a regional nuclear war or a nuclear conflict sparked by an accident.

Authors' NotePrologue: Armageddon in Retrospect: On the Road with Papa & The BoyPart One: DarkChapter 1: Shit (Almost) Happened in October 1962: The Struggle to Avoid Armageddon Involves the Struggle of Memory Against Forgetting.Chapter 2: The Bullshit: Bad Guys Threaten; Good Guys Stand Firm; Good Guys Win; Bad Guys Lose; the Little Guy Doesn't Matter; JFK's Moxie Prevails.Chapter 3: The Truth: Big Guys Ignore Little Guy; Feeling Doomed, Little Guy Throws Caution to the Wind, Starts Shooting, and Asks Big Friend to Nuke the U.S.; Armageddon Nearly Occurs.Part Two: DarkerChapter 4: Habitable History: How Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall Became the Template for a "WABAC" Machine for the Cuban Missile Crisis.Chapter 5: Be Robert McNamara: Bringing the Abolition Message Home, With (and Without) "Maximum Bob"Chapter 6: Be Fidel Castro: A Leader at the Hinge of the World.Part Three: DarkestChapter 7: Armageddon in Slow Motion: More Bullshit and Truth about Avoiding Armageddon in the 21st Century.Chapter 8: Armageddon Oops! Nuclear War via Mechanical and/or Human Screw-up.Chapter 9: On The Road Again Via Climate Catastrophe: From a 19th Century Volcanic Eruption to a 21st Century Nuclear Winter.Part Four: The Darkness Defined and Defied (via the Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis)Chapter 10: Be Anybody WABAC: Empathy, Not Sympathy is the Key.Chapter 11: Darkness Visible: Findings, Takeaways and Imperatives of the Cuban Missile CrisisChapter 12: The Black Saturday Manifesto: Abolishing Nuclear Weapons One Anniversary Per Year, For As Long As It Takes.Epilogue: Show Us Your Darkness: Warning Given! Warning Received?AcknowledgmentsPermissions & CreditsNotesIndexAbout the Authors