Nuclear War
A Scenario
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Narrated by:
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Annie Jacobsen
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By:
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Annie Jacobsen
About this listen
The INSTANT New York Times bestseller
Instant Los Angeles Times bestseller
One of NPR's Books We Love
One of Newsweek Staffers' Favorite Books of the Year
Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize
“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 reading, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency.
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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
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Phenomenally mediocre narration of a good book
- By philip on 05-18-17
By: Annie Jacobsen
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The Pentagon's Brain
- An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency
- By: Annie Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Discover the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, in this Pulitzer Prize finalist from the author of the New York Times best seller Area 51. No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times best-selling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain".
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Scientia Est Potentia/Knowledge is Power
- By Cynthia on 10-08-15
By: Annie Jacobsen
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Targeted: Beirut
- The 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing and the Untold Origin Story of the War on Terror
- By: Jack Carr, James M. Scott
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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1983: the United States Marine Corps experiences its greatest single-day loss of life since the Battle of Iwo Jima when a truck packed with explosives crashes into their headquarters and barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. This horrifying terrorist attack, which killed 241 servicemen, continues to influence US foreign policy and haunts the Marine Corps to this day. Now, the full story is revealed as never before by Jack Carr and historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist James M. Scott.
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Neglected History Brought to Life
- By P. Heard on 10-03-24
By: Jack Carr, and others
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Command and Control
- Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety
- By: Eric Schlosser
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 20 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Famed investigative journalist Eric Schlosser digs deep to uncover secrets about the management of America's nuclear arsenal. A groundbreaking account of accidents, near misses, extraordinary heroism, and technological breakthroughs, Command and Control explores the dilemma that has existed since the dawn of the nuclear age: How do you deploy weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them? That question has never been resolved - and Schlosser reveals how the combination of human fallibility and technological complexity still poses a grave risk to mankind.
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A miracle that we escaped the Cold War alive....
- By A reader on 02-16-14
By: Eric Schlosser
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Imminent
- Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs
- By: Luis Elizondo
- Narrated by: Luis Elizondo, Christopher Mellon
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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The former head of the Pentagon program responsible for the investigation of UFOs—now known as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP)—reveals long-hidden truths with profound implications for not only national security but our understanding of the universe.
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Don't!
- By Lakeguy978 on 08-30-24
By: Luis Elizondo
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When the Sea Came Alive
- An Oral History of D-Day
- By: Garrett M. Graff
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Garrett M. Graff, full cast
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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A visceral drama, When the Sea Came Alive is the most comprehensive account of D-Day that we have yet to see, and an unforgettable, fitting tribute to the men and women of the Greatest Generation.
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Amazing Re-telling of the Story of D-Day!
- By Cheryl B on 06-16-24
By: Garrett M. Graff
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The Demon of Unrest
- A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Erik Larson
- Length: 17 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter.
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Vividly Told History of the Start of the Civil War
- By WLC on 05-01-24
By: Erik Larson
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The Tragedy of Great Power Politics
- By: John J. Mearsheimer
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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A decade after the cold war ended, policy makers and academics foresaw a new era of peace and prosperity, an era in which democracy and open trade would herald the "end of history." The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, sadly shattered these idyllic illusions, and John Mearsheimer's masterful new book explains why these harmonious visions remain utopian.
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Exceptional
- By Logical Paradox on 08-19-14
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Raven Rock
- The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself - While the Rest of Us Die
- By: Garrett M. Graff
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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A fresh window on American history: the eye-opening truth about the government's secret plans to survive a catastrophic attack on US soil, even if the rest of us die - a road map that spans from the dawn of the nuclear age to today.
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Awesome Read!!
- By Brewer Richardson on 05-05-17
By: Garrett M. Graff
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Nexus
- A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
- By: Yuval Noah Harari
- Narrated by: Vidish Athavale
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive? Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world.
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Painfully boring
- By 80s Kid on 09-18-24
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The Devil's Chessboard
- Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government
- By: David Talbot
- Narrated by: Peter Altschuler
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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An explosive, headline-making portrait of Allen Dulles, the man who transformed the CIA into the most powerful - and secretive - colossus in Washington, from the founder of Salon.com and author of the New York Times best seller Brothers.
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Disturbing. Makes you question the company line.
- By KTS on 02-06-16
By: David Talbot
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The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
- A History of Nazi Germany
- By: William L. Shirer
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 57 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Since its publication in 1960, William L. Shirer’s monumental study of Hitler’s German empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of the 20th century’s blackest hours. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print around the globe, it has attained the status of a vital and enduring classic.
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Held my interest for 57 hours and 13 minutes
- By Jonnie on 11-08-10
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Chaos
- Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties
- By: Tom O'Neill, Dan Piepenbring
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Over two grim nights in Los Angeles, the young followers of Charles Manson murdered seven people, including the actress Sharon Tate, then eight months pregnant. With no mercy and seemingly no motive, the Manson Family followed their leader's every order. Twenty years ago, when journalist Tom O'Neill was reporting a magazine piece about the murders, he worried there was nothing new to say. Then he unearthed shocking evidence of a cover-up behind the "official" story, including police carelessness, legal misconduct, and potential surveillance by intelligence agents.
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Don't fall for the negative reviews...
- By Visualverbs on 08-04-19
By: Tom O'Neill, and others
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Letters from Guantánamo
- By: Mansoor Adayfi, Antonio Aiello
- Narrated by: Mansoor Adayfi, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Elias Khalil, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Original Recording
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In weeks after the September 11 attacks, 18-year-old Mansoor Adayfi was kidnapped by Afghan militia and sold to US forces for bounty money. After months of interrogations, he was sent to the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as one of its first prisoners. Like the nearly 800 other men imprisoned at Guantanamo, Adayfi didn’t know why he was imprisoned or for how long. He had never seen a skyscraper and couldn’t imagine what the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center looked like, much less how they were destroyed.
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An important reminder
- By Dave Heilman on 05-25-24
By: Mansoor Adayfi, and others
What listeners say about Nuclear War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Robert
- 04-24-24
Great book, but read waaayyy to slow.
Fascinatingly terrifying. Listen to it at 1.2x speed. She just reads it way too slow.
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13 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 04-12-24
Apocalyptic
This book, written by Annie Jacobsen (read by Sarah Conner), was amazing. Definitely, add this to your library.
One notion this book disabused me of, was the notion of control. In this scenario, we have no control. No choice but to let the chips (or the buildings and civilizations) fall where they may. But, what do we do in the meantime? How do we live? I’ll answer that with a quote by C.S. Lewis on this very topic.
“In a way, we think a great deal to much of the atomic bomb. ‘How are we to live in an atomic age?’ I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.”
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12 people found this helpful
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- TJBuford
- 03-28-24
We have taken our eye off the ball
Too many of us have forgotten how dangerous the world is today. Yes, there is terrorism. But short of a catastrophic meteor strike, NOTHING will impact the lives of every human more than nuclear war. This isn’t just a book. To me, this is a call to action. It would be way too easy for the scenario described or something similar to happen. Especially when we have world leaders openly threatening nuclear strikes.
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6 people found this helpful
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- william r babcock
- 03-27-24
Terrifying but plausible
This isn’t a normal “what if” book. It’s loaded with facts and insights from people in the know that make the scenario quite realistic and believable.
A word of caution though…it’s not a book you can “unhear”. It will change your perspective on the future of humanity. That said, if everyone better understood the impacts and consequences of a nuclear exchange and EMP, perhaps we’d live in a safer world.
I thank the author for writing this!
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5 people found this helpful
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- Taylor Dye
- 03-31-24
Enthralling & Terrifying. An incredible and important read..
This deeply shook me. 10/10… I had just finished Kaplan’s “The Bomb” which breaks down a chronological history of the bomb Truman-to-Trump(phenomenal book). I saw Annie on Lex Friedman talking about this new work of hers and immediately preordered it. I’m an instant fan. The way she framed this book as a second by second timeline of “unthinkable” events while weaving in historical context and recently declassified technical info makes this a fricken masterpiece.
It’s also more frightening than fiction and defies genre. Is it fiction? Sort of. Couldn’t this all happen in the next few hours? Yes. Doesn’t that make it non-fiction?
This may be the only book one would need if they wanted to know more about nuclear weapons, why they are so dangerous, and what makes it such a complex issue.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Timothy Prentice, Esquire
- 05-06-24
This book blows you away!
This is a stunningly well written book that demonstrates the folly of nuclear war by simply describing the mechanics of executing a nuclear war. The level of research done to write this book is obvious with every minute spent listening to the book. My only suggestion is to hire Scott Brick or some other professional voice actor to improve the performance. Still this is a must read book especially given current events.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Sean Richardson
- 05-02-24
My stomach hasn’t been the same since I started
This is, by far, the most well-researched and presented plausible Armageddon stories. Jacobsen is eminently qualified to present such a scenario. It’s absolutely terrifying. Not in the Stephen King horror type of narrative, but rather in its gut wrenching detail. DO NOT read this if you are at all sensitive - you’ve been warned. I’ve read dozens of similar books and nothing can even remotely hold a candle to Nuclear War. It should be required reading for all military leaders, political leaders, and any president or presidential candidate.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Rick
- 04-22-24
Very well researched. Very disturbing
The story told in this book is a hypothetical scenario with a very disturbing outcome. While the reporting behind this book and well researched citing credible experts and scientists, there are a thousand ways this outcome may have been different. But that isn't the point the author was trying to convey. And maybe this is a good time for a wider audience to have a discussion about strategic blunder witnessed in out lifetimes.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 04-29-24
Another impressive book
The amount of detail Annie gives this book is unreal. The research she puts into this book is amazing. So much praise for her commitment and ability to give us this book. Thank you
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- John G. Wilderman Coach
- 04-30-24
Couldn’t Sleep at All last Night
Left with images so real and frightening it’s hard to relax while reading. Nuclear armament proliferation is insane and we’re all part of the insanity.
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2 people found this helpful