90 Seconds to Midnight
A Hiroshima Survivor's Nuclear Odyssey
by Charlotte Jacobs
You must sign in to see if this title is available for request. Sign In or Register Now
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Jun 01 2025 | Archive Date May 31 2025
University of Nebraska Press | Potomac Books
Talking about this book? Use #90SecondstoMidnight #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
In 2015 Thurlow sparked a rallying cry for activists when she proclaimed at the United Nations, “Humanity and nuclear weapons cannot coexist.” With that, she shifted the global discussion from nuclear deterrence to humanitarian consequences, the key in crafting the landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Regarded as the conscience of the antinuclear movement, Thurlow accepted the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. With the fate of humanity at stake and with the resolve of her samurai ancestors, Thurlow challenged leaders of the nuclear-armed states. On January 22, 2021, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons went into effect, banning nuclear weapons under international law.
Critical historical events need a personal narrative, and Thurlow is such a storyteller for Hiroshima. 90 Seconds to Midnight recounts Thurlow’s ascent from the netherworld where she saw, heard, and smelled death and her relentless efforts to protect the world from an unspeakable fate. Knowing she would have to live with those nightmares, Thurlow turned them into a force to impel people across the globe to learn from Hiroshima, to admit that yes, it could happen again—and then to take action.
Advance Praise
“Charlotte Jacobs has a most compelling story to tell—the biography of Setsuko Nakamura Thurlow, a survivor of Hiroshima. Only biography has the power to convey what happened at the dawn of the nuclear age.”—Kai Bird, coauthor of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
“Setsuko Nakamura Thurlow’s life story captures the horror of nuclear weapons. That a survivor could transcend her experience into a lifetime of activism that has made the world safer is so inspiring. I’ve loved Jacobs’s previous biographical works; in 90 Seconds to Midnight her skill reaches new heights.”—Abraham Verghese, author of The Covenant of Water, an Oprah’s Book Club selection
“Setsuko Nakamura Thurlow’s story is inspiring, heroic, and profoundly important. This is a remarkable book about a truly remarkable woman.”—Eric Schlosser, author of Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, a Pulitzer Prize finalist
“This eminently readable book is riveting, timely, and much needed. It offers a unique and deeply affecting first-person account of the unimaginable horrors of Hiroshima through the eyes of Setsuko Nakamura Thurlow, who survived the bombing as a young teen to become a leading witness to the world on the crimes against humanity unleashed by nuclear war. She is a messenger we must hear, and we must heed.”—Diana Chapman Walsh, president emerita of Wellesley College and author of The Claims of Life: A Memoir
Available Editions
EDITION | Hardcover |
ISBN | 9781640126305 |
PRICE | $36.95 (USD) |
PAGES | 360 |