This is what the end of the world looks like
Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War describes the collapse of civilization in unforgettable detail
The world could end in the next couple of hours.
This is the premise of Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War.
This deeply researched book describes how the world as we know it blows up, burns down, and eventually grinds to a complete halt after the US is attacked by nuclear missiles.
It’s not a military book; it’s a book about how, thanks to some absurd policy decisions and national obsession with nuclear stockpiling, we might one day manage to destroy everything.
I still can’t wipe away the images this book created in my mind. T-shirts combusting at baseball games. The president bleeding out in a forest. Animals microwaved in their cages.
This is not a fun book — every sentence is heavy. But it is also not a difficult read. Jacobsen is a masterful storyteller and this book is basically a thriller, whisking you along for an exhilarating read that you find yourself, bizarrely, enjoying.
If you’re not a D.C. resident then you’ll spend the whole time figuring out how you might survive as the events unfold — until you realise that, in a situation like this, “the survivors will envy the dead.”
I can’t recommend this book enough. Jacobsen has handled a heavy topic with a light touch. I believe this is exactly the kind of approach the world needs more of: accessible and even entertaining expositions the big problems.
I listened to the audiobook version of this book, which Jacobsen reads herself (I love when authors do this) to chilling effect.
Author: Annie Jacobsen
About: How a nuclear attack on the United States might play out
Rating: 5/5
Favourite quote: “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” (Einstein, quoted)
Did you read Nuclear War? Let me know what you thought.
Related reads:
What We Owe the Future (William McGaskill, 2022)
The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity (Toby Ord, 2021)
Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America (Annie Jacobsen, 2014)