Helpful Score: 7
This book was written in 1959 during the Cold War era. In this scenario, the Soviet Union actually launches missles at the U. S., destroying most of the east coast and all major cities. This is the story of how a little community in Florida that managed to stay uncontaminated, learns how to survive without electricity, city water, grocery stores, medicine, gasoline and many other conveniences of modern civilization. I give it a 10 because I didn't want to put it down once I had started it.
Helpful Score: 5
I read Alas Babylon and thought my how things change. Comparing it to todays' doomsday books (The Road, In the Country of Lost Things, Zombie Survival Guide, etc), this book actually believed we could rise above our baser instincts and pull together to survive. Heck, they even seemed to improve their life being isolated like that, and naturally the commies started it but we won so that's a "plus". I have a remembrance of the whole bunker mentality, the duck and cover school drills. I found it interesting that the author decided to make it a livable existence if not even idyllic in the long run. Whereas, a few generations removed, it seems that today, everybody assumes the world will end but those that survive will be cave dwelling, isolationists bent on fearing what they don't know and killing what they do. I know that this book was a turn around OPEN YOUR EYES breakthrough at the time and I guess as long as there are people walking the planet, there will be fear of the unknown BOOM that takes it all away. But this fella actually made me kind of wish I lived in the surviving community
Helpful Score: 2
This is the classic post-nuclear holocaust book, originally published in 1959. I read it at about that time, and remember the fear of nuclear war of that time!! (I was in elementary school then.)
Helpful Score: 2
Alas, Babylon first issued in 1959 was a well written scare piece. It seems just as scary today as it did then. NY Herald Tribune says "A warm, continuously interesting story of what can happen to a group of ordinary people in a perilous situation."
Helpful Score: 2
A brilliant look at the world after nuclear holocaust. The denizens of a small Florida town, forewarned of the impending disaster, pull together to survive when they are cut off from the rest of the country. Particularly interesting because of when it when it was written - the 1950's - and how the true fear of the Bomb comes through from that era. Still, the story feels timeless and seems utterly relevant to today.
