Nuclear War
A Scenario
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Nuclear War
Narrated by:
Annie Jacobsen
Buy Now for ₹957.00
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Narrated by:
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Annie Jacobsen
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Written by:
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Annie Jacobsen
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
The Sunday Times bestselling edge-of-your-seat exploration of what would happen in the event of nuclear war, perfect for readers of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.
*Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2024*
Nuclear war begins with a blip on a radar screen.
This is a minute-by-minute account of what comes next.
It has to be read to be believed.
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.
Until now, no one outside 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 civilization.
Decisions that affect hundreds of millions of lives need to be made within six minutes, based on partial information, in the knowledge that once launched, nothing is capable of halting the destruction.
Based on dozens of new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, been privy to the response plans, and taken responsibility for crucial decisions, 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.
'Essential' New York Times
'A stomach-clenching, multi-perspective, ticking-clock, geopolitical thriller' Forbes
'Tells a terrifying story in a devastatingly straightforward way' Guardian
©2024 Annie Jacobsen (P)2024 Penguin Audio
Critic Reviews
As gripping as any thriller, her book brilliantly portrays the horrific reality of nuclear war. (P. D. Smith)
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.
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. (Barry Gewen)
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.
This terrifying book is a must-read for every world leader.
Extraordinary... Her book delivers more detail than has been available to the public before... Terrifying.
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. (Gideon Rachman)
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.
In Nuclear War: A Scenario, Annie Jacobsen, gives us a vivid picture of what could happen if our nuclear guardians fail…Terrifying.
Annie Jacobsen returns with her trademark formula: serious investigation journalism sprinting on a ticking clock. The world ends in roughly an hour. Please remain seated. This is nonfiction written like a blockbuster thriller that drank too much espresso.
The opening setup is where the satire writes itself. The United States, naturally, is not the one to start it. History is asked to wait outside with its receipts. Enter the designated villain: anti capitalist, non Western, non blond, non blue eyed. Kim Jong Un is cast as the unstable spark, and at one point the book suggests an EMP triggered attack motivated in part by him being ridiculed for North Korea’s poor electricity supply. Yes, the man runs a brutal dictatorship. No, being roasted for load shedding is not a convincing reason to push the species toward extinction. This is less analysis and more pre dehumanization. Even dictators do not wake up and choose apocalypse because someone mocked their power grid.
Once the missiles fly, the book improves dramatically. Blame spreads evenly. Morality collapses symmetrically. Jacobsen shines when describing chains of command, protocols stacked like bureaucratic dominoes, humans reduced to checklists with pulses. Her radiation poisoning passages are chilling. No fireworks, just bodies quietly giving up. It is horrifying in the most clinical way.
The pacing is relentless. Minute by minute escalation feels like a high speed chase where nobody is chasing anyone, just reacting faster and faster until reaction itself runs out. For nonfiction, it reads like fiction. For a scenario, it feels ominously inevitable. Sensationalism? Absolutely. But done with craft and confidence.
Still, the cracks show. The EMP chapter, while sourced, feels suspiciously breezy. Civilization switches off, chaos ensues, and we move along. The second and third order consequences, where things actually get interesting, are waved past. You can feel the research notes behind the prose, but the technical depth never quite arrives.
Then there is the geography. Europe fights. Nuclear powers panic. The Global South waits patiently in the background, as usual. There is little exploration of what this kind of collapse means for Africa, Latin America, South Asia, or Southeast Asia. Food systems, migration, economic aftershocks, political chaos. The implication is awkward: when the Caucasian world stops functioning, the book treats that as the end of the world. Everyone else is apparently just buffering.
Audiobook note. Annie Jacobsen the writer is sharp. Annie Jacobsen the narrator is soothing enough to be dangerous. For a book powered by a countdown, this is not ideal. Set playback to 1.2x unless you want to snooze through Armageddon.
Final verdict. Investigation journalism matters, and Jacobsen remains very good at it. But the pattern is clear. Her book subjects are chosen for maximum fear, fast sales, and cinematic payoff. These are the stories people want to hear, not always the ones they most need.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 doomsday clocks. One clock lost to a world that seems to end when certain capitals go dark, another half to thin motivations.
Live by the sword, die by the sword...
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hoping this just remains in the fictional realm
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With easy steps that could be taken to avoided it from happening being ignored at every turn from 24 hour predator drones waiting for ballistic launches to ignoring the good for humanity argument after a first strike by a major power.
Mutually Assured Destruction that I’d learned of growing up had never seemed like more of a joke.
This book doesn’t even consider the possibility that some state actors have a habit of false flag operations and using a small nuke on their own population to justify a first strike can’t be ruled out given how callously they treat their own population.
All I hope is that humans as a species make it through though I don’t wish to be a part of it because if much rather die in the initial blast than from secondary radioactive side effects.
10/10
Frighteningly realistic
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grim and an eye opener
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Eye opener!!
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