Prisoner's Dilemma: Von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Mystery of the Atomic Bomb

Author: (USA) Ponderstone
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: This book elucidates game theory in a clear and accessible manner, truly a unique work. It is reflected in its rich historical material, broad perspective, and logical analysis, narrating the Cold War history, strategic games of the nuclear age, and the life of von Neumann in a vivid and straightforward way. It reveals some chilling intergovernmental intrigue after the war, making it an outstanding sociological and historical textbook on game theory and its role in the Cold War and nuclear arms race. The perspective of this book is very broad. The author, centered around the life of von Neumann and the theory of games, essentially presents to the readers the contradictions and conflicts on the international political stage after World War II and in the early Cold War, and attempts to analyze their roots. This book allows us to understand in detail the major debates in the post-war United States and the entire Western world about whether to develop atomic weapons, and the discussions surrounding the "first strike" doctrine. It also provides a detailed account of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early 1960s, which shook the world, including its process and behind-the-scenes.