The End is Always Near

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Do tough times create tougher people? Can humanity handle the power of its weapons without destroying itself? Will human technology ever peak or regress? And why, since the dawn of time, has it always seemed as though death and destruction are waiting just around the corner?

Combining his trademark thrilling, expansive storytelling with rigorous history and thought experiment, Dan Carlin connects past with future to explore the tipping points of collapsing civilisations – from the plague to nuclear war.

Looking across every brush with apocalypse, crisis and collapse, this book also weighs, knowing all we do about human patterns, whether our world is likely to become a ruin for future archaeologists to dig up and explore.

FROM THE CREATOR OF THE AWARD-WINNING, 100+ MILLION DOWNLOAD PODCAST HARDCORE HISTORY

Reviews

‘Carlin puts the 'hardcore' in Hardcore History by focusing his narratives on the most violent and dramatic moments in human history, filling his show with colorful anecdotes that were most likely left out of your high school history class.’
Time

‘A master of storytelling, Dan Carlin uses vivid detail and intuitive empathy to imagine what it was like to live through the end of the world … Carlin's engaging and accessible style invites us to ponder the rise and fall of civilizations and ask where we are headed. The end of the world is not merely a catastrophe that waits for us down the road; it is a ghost that haunts the places we've already been.’
Mike Duncan, New York Times bestselling author of The Storm Before the Storm

‘This is the perfect thought experiment for anyone who believes the world is doomed, if only to remind them of one essential reality: the world has always, always seemed doomed…It feels odd to classify a book about barbarians and flu pandemics and the morality of nuclear war as fun, but that's the single best modifier for The End is Always Near. It's an apocalyptic discotheque.’
Chuck Klosterman, author of But What If We're Wrong?

‘For podcast fanatics, each new release is akin to the Super Bowl … Host Dan Carlin, a former radio broadcaster, brings both passion and showmanship as he unspools historical narratives with a flair for tension and intensity.’
AV Club

‘Walking listeners through Operation Barbarossa, the German attempt to capture Moscow, the Battle of Stalingrad, and Germany's ouster from the Soviet Union, Carlin is a wide-eyed, colorful guide to a dreadful story.’
Slate

‘Carlin serves as a notable example of… a person who can discuss issues deeply and idiosyncratically.’
Los Angeles Times

About the author

Pioneering podcaster and broadcast journalist Dan Carlin is the king of long-form audio content. With his Hardcore History episodes sometimes topping out at over six hours each, and using nothing but his voice, he entertains millions. The show was named the Best Classic Podcast in iTunes' Best of 2014 awards, Best Educational Podcast of 2015 from the Podcast Awards and the Best History podcast of 2018 by the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards. He lives in Eugene, Oregon.