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Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Command and Control: A Publishing Mystery

A few years ago when I was reading Fast Food Nation, I used to share with my family during our meals what I had read the night before. That book provided a lot of information to talk about. It was Schlosser’s interview in the DVD version of Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me that convinced me to read Fast Food Nation.

For about six months now, I have been looking forward to reading Eric Schlosser’s investigative reporting in his Command and Control, a look at those accidents and near accidents in this country involving nuclear bombs. Some sources say that the book was released in 2009; other sources say that the book was published in February, 2012. Oddly, however, there are no copies available on the Internet. Even a search at Penguin USA, the publisher, produces no results. These details when added together cast doubt on the possibility of copies ever becoming available. Are these details representative of book publishing, when a company chooses not to publish one book in favor of another one with more earning potential, or should we suspect that something or someone is suppressing the book because of its subject matter?

Addendum: Contacting the author would be one way to solve the mystery. My searches on the Internet to find Schlosser's e-mail address or mailing address have not been successful. Any help would be appreciated.

Note (05/02/2013): I have recently learned that Eric Schlosser's Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety will be released on September 17, 2013. Some websites still insist that the book was originally published in 2009.