Peddling Peril: How the Secret Nuclear Trade Arms America's Enemies

Tech Historian has written a review about what is not in the book, and generally I agree that the book would have benefitted from Tech Historian's suggested additions to the book. However, I'm writing a review about the book that David Albright did write, a book about nuclear weapons proliferation in Pakistan, North Korea, South Africa, Iran and Libya. The book is well organized; it deals with each country in a separate chapter so that you can keep track of the narrative for that country. The chapters are arranged in such a way that the story of one country is informed by information given in previous chapters about other countries. As you read each chapter, a larger narrative unfolds, linking together the activities of engineers, salesman, arms dealers, and politicians in a dozen countries. The book solidly achieves its purpose of knitting together thousands of details into one coherent, understandable story spanning decades and continents. The book is written in a straightforward, clear accessible style. It seems to me (I'm not an expert on the subject) thoroughly researched, completely accurate, detailed and informative. Each sentence provides a piece of information; there is no filler. The research in each chapter is supported by dozens of references. Clearly David Albright has done his homework and he knows inside and out what he has written about. If you want to know how impoverished countries such as North Korea or Pakistan, (and soon Iran), got nuclear weapons and how close we are to terrorists armed with nuclear weapons, then you'd do well to read this book. I hope you do.