The End is Always Near by Dan Carlin is a fascinating glimpse through history at some near "apocalyptic" events and musings on how our own society might end. It tackles the concept of "toughness", childhood and violence, wars throughout history, epidemics and medical developments, and moral dilemmas surrounding Total War. 

I enjoyed the first half of this book more than the second, mainly for the fact that the last two chapter focus almost entirely on WWII, the atomic bomb, and aerial warfare. Which, in a book this short, is a lot of space. It makes sense that war is such a large focus of this book, but the examples are also rather limited and eurocentric, including the earlier focus on the ancient Mediterranean "Dark Ages" and the "fall" of the Roman empire. 

I liked the moments when Carlin discussed the concept of "toughness" and complicated the idea that techological progress correlates to better societies. 

This book also suffered just for its publication timing. It was published at the end of 2019, and therefore the entire chapter on epidemics and disease was immediately out of date. Although it did highlight how much of the COVID-19 pandemic echoed historical epidemics and outcomes were easily predictable - and therefore how ridiculous it was that governments failed to react in a thoughtful and timely manner. 

The pacing of the book was also bogged down by how long the chapters are. They could have used subheadings to break up the text. As I mentioned, the chapter on nuclear war was especially long, which made it feel like a slog to get through. 

Overall, I found that Carlin had some fascinating ideas, and the historical incidents he recounts through an apocalyptic lens were interesting, but a bit of low-hanging fruit, examples-wise. I am interested in checking out his podcats though.