Nuclear War

A Scenario

By: Annie Jacobsen

Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen

Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

The INSTANT New York Times bestseller

Instant Los Angeles Times bestseller

“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

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 one of the triggers for that war would be a nuclear missile inbound toward the United States.

Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds’ notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. Nuclear War: A Scenario examines the handful of minutes after a nuclear missile launch. It is essential listening, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency.

©2024 Penguin Audio (P)2024 Annie Jacobsen

Critic reviews

“Gripping . . . 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. . . . Jacobsen has done her homework. She has spent more than a decade interviewing dozens of experts while mastering the voluminous literature on the subject, some of it declassified only in recent years.”—New York Times Book Review

“Timeless, masterful. . .A stomach-clenching, multi-perspective, ticking-clock, geopolitical thriller. Jacobsen expertly delivers a madman’s portrait of Armageddon, one made all the more impactful by the thought that it could literally occur at any moment. Almost novel-like in its presentation, Nuclear War: A Scenario represents the equivalent of an existential gut punch, a sickening and necessary reminder of how fragile every 21st century convenience becomes in the face of a blinding flash of light and near-instantaneous shockwave. Exhaustively researched and featuring interviews with professionals who truly understand just how close we continue to creep toward thermonuclear annihilation Nuclear War: A Scenario should be required reading for everyone alive today, especially for the politicians and policymakers who literally hold the precarious fate of our species in their hands.”—Forbes

“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

I Had A Very Bad Night

I’m not even done yet and I’m reviewing. This is a MUST LISTEN. But it will make your stomach churn and may give you night terrors.

I’m sitting here in the 3 mile radius of Buckley Space Force Base and thinking I need to make plans in case this ever happens. But I can’t make plans. I’ll be vaporized. I have friends in California and DON’T want to hear her say, “It is a warm day at the end of March” because today is a warm day at the end of March and it is too G-D REAL.

Ms. Jacobsen has exhaustively researched the scenario of thermonuclear attack. She’s interviewed dozens of high level authorities. There is a ton of detail here about our defense and offense plans, weapons, how the whole thing would play out, and why. Some was known to me, most is new.

I’ve read many fictional accounts, like On The Beach and Alas, Babylon. I’ve seen the movies. This book is FAR more real than any of them.

She will get the Pulitzer for this.

Listening suggestion: increase the speed to 1.2 if her voice seems a bit incongruous with the text.

Humanity MUST listen

This was written in a very unique, gripping way. Annie has done the world a justice. The amount of detail, beginning with the SECOND after a rocket is launched, all the way to the effects it could have on earth years after, is simply astounding. This is a move to the top of your list book.

A beyond sobering truth: ground zero is the best place to be.

Annie is my favorite investigative journalist and writer that I've come across. I listened to this book over the course of just two days. The horrific yet fantastic realization is it just like Game of Thrones, everybody dies, but in this tale the best place to be is directly under the thermal nuclear weapon when it goes off, and that the base human desire to survive is complete folly. This book lays out in fantastic and unarguable detail the reality that deterrence is a silly idea based on rational Homosapien. But what kind of rational Homosapien creates a weapon based on the core of a star. This book might change who you vote for, but it will also make you love your family and your pets that much more and appreciate how beautiful the Earth is. Like all her other books, I will listen to this more than once.

The book you are looking for

If a suggestion is what brought here to the review section then the algorithm nailed it. First of all you can bet the house on Annie’s thorough and accurate reporting of facts and SOP’s. Second of all you can trust that this is a realistic, albeit terrifying imagining of the paper thin reality that you are currently living in.

intensly scary

great walk through minute by minute of what could unfold and the tragedy. Very detailed from weapon launches to immediate effects to long term.

Very scary to envision!

This was a powerful reminder to everyone, world leaders included, never never never let this happen! No one wins! We all lose. This scared me beyond measure. Pray we never see this day!

The realism and deatail was extraordinary and numbing.

In this scenario, upon realizing that the U.S counterstrike on North Korea wasn't an attack against Russia, I would've like seeing the face of the Russian President as he realize he launched a full scale, life ending attack on the U.S. the realization that a phone call would have maybe stopped this attack.

Well researched and terrifyingly plausible.

I consumed this book in two days. Could not put it down and it’s left a lasting impression. A well researched study of a fictitious scenario that is terrifyingly plausible. A necessary reminder that we all live on the razors edge.

Pace and truthfulness

Stunning non fiction! Engrossing and succinct . Recommended my military friends with knowledge of catastrophic implications

Shocking

One of the most shocking books I have ever read. Definitely worth the read. It's changed me.