Nuclear War

Author Annie Jacobsen
Narrator Annie Jacobsen
Publisher Transworld
Run Time 11 hours and 19 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Armed conflict, Explosives technology and pyrotechnics, Geopolitics, Military and defence strategy, Nuclear weapons, Politics and government, Society and Social Sciences, Theory of warfare and military science.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

There is only one scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end the world as we know it in a matter of hours: nuclear war. And it could start in as little as 26 minutes and 40 seconds from now…

An edge-of-your-seat non-fiction thriller for readers of American Prometheus by Kai Bird or Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham.

The first rule of nuclear war is that there are no rules.

Up to now, no one outside of official circles has known exactly what would happen if a rogue state launched a nuclear missile at the Pentagon. Second by second and minute by minute, these are the real-life protocols that choreograph the end of civilisation as we know it.

If a single nuclear missile is launched, it provokes two dozen in return. Frantic calls over secure lines work to confirm the worst as armoured helicopters are scrambled outside. Decisions over hundreds of millions of lives need to be made within six minutes, based on partial information, knowing that once launched, nothing is capable of halting the destruction.

Because the plans for General Nuclear War are among the most classified secrets held by the United States government, this book takes the reader up to the razor’s edge of what can legally be known. Based on dozens of new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, been privy to the response plans, and been responsible for the decisions that will be made, this is the only account of what a nuclear exchange would look like.

Nuclear War is at once a compulsive non-fiction thriller and a powerful argument that we must rid ourselves of these world-ending weapons for ever.

©2024 Annie Jacobsen (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

Jacobsen seeks to break through jargon and details in order to tell a terrifying story in a devastatingly straightforward way.

Guardian

A stomach-clenching, multi-perspective, ticking-clock, geopolitical thriller rooted in the seeds of our own destruction, planted nearly 80 years ago at the Trinity test site by the scientists of the Manhattan Project who brazenly dared to rip the building blocks of our universe apart… I couldn’t put the thing down, feverishly turning page after page until I finished it on the plane ride home… Nuclear War: A Scenario should be required reading for everyone alive today.

Forbes

Books like Annie Jacobsen’s gripping Nuclear War: A Scenario are essential if you want to understand the complex and disturbing details that go into a civilization-destroying decision to drop the Bomb on an enemy.

The New York Times

Based on hundreds of interviews with many retired security officials and more-or-less declassified information in the public domain, what it captures brilliantly is the emotional chaos into which leaders would be plunged in such a situation…. These are scenes straight out of Dr Strangelove.

Telegraph

This terrifying book is a must-read for every world leader.

Mother Jones

Extraordinary… Her book delivers more detail than has been available to the public before… Terrifying.

New Scientist

Using hard data from top military, government, and scientific sources, and brilliantly weaving in historical facts and technical data, Annie Jacobsen masterfully explains the nuclear issue in riveting story form, turning her readers into experts on the one issue that must concern us all. I guarantee that even the most knowledgeable readers will learn something, if not a lot. Everyone, especially politicians and heads of state, must read this important and very timely book. I cannot recommend it enough.

Carlos Umaña, co-president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Not one to read if you have trouble sleeping.

Financial Times

At once methodical and vivid. In documenting the minutiae of the apocalypse, the writing is redolent of ‘Hiroshima’, a seminal article by John Hersey published in the New Yorker in 1946.

The Economist

In Nuclear War: A Scenario, Annie Jacobsen, gives us a vivid picture of what could happen if our nuclear guardians fail…Terrifying.

Wall Street Journal

User Reviews

Book 5.0

Narration 5.0

5.0

A 2024 update on Dr Strangelove.
A shocking must read. In particular how little disarmament and escalation has happened in the past 35 years. And that the situation is more dangerous now than in the cold war.
Clearly written.

hallwiton 15/02/2025

5.0

This book contains the most horrific description of an event I've ever heard. It should be played on a loop to every so called world leader to remind them that their actions if they made a stupid choice, could end this world. Almost everyone would die. Nobody would win. This book is an excellent listen.

Hojohns 03/06/2024

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