
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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- Unabridged
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In the chaos following World War II, the US government faced many difficult decisions, including what to do with the Third Reich's scientific minds. These were the brains behind the Nazis' once-indomitable war machine. So began Operation Paperclip, a decades-long, covert project to bring Hitler's scientists and their families to the United States. Many of these men were accused of war crimes, and others had stood trial at Nuremberg; one was convicted of mass murder and slavery.
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The Osenberg list
- By Jean on 08-07-14
By: Annie Jacobsen
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First Platoon
- A Story of Modern War in the Age of Identity Dominance
- By: Annie Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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This is a story that starts off close and goes very big. The initial part of the story might sound familiar at first: it is about a platoon of mostly 19-year-old boys sent to Afghanistan, and an experience that ends abruptly in catastrophe. Their part of the story folds into the next: inexorably linked to those soldiers and never comprehensively reported before is the US Department of Defense’s quest to build the world’s most powerful biometrics database, with the ability to identify, monitor, catalog, and police people all over the world.
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An eye opener
- By Amazon Customer on 01-19-21
By: Annie Jacobsen
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Watermelon Syrup
- A Novel
- By: Annie Jacobsen, Jane Finlay-Young, Di Brandt
- Narrated by: Ryanne Chisholm
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Lexi, a young Mennonite woman from Saskatchewan, comes to work as housekeeper and nanny for a doctor’s family in Waterloo, Ontario, during the Depression. Dr. Gerald Oliver is a handsome philanderer who lives with his neurotic and alcoholic wife, Cammy, and their two children. Lexi soon adapts to modern conveniences, happily wears Cammy’s expensive cast off clothes, and is transformed from an innocent into a chic urban beauty. When Lexi is called home to Saskatchewan to care for her dying mother, she returns a changed person.
By: Annie Jacobsen, and others
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Anyone
- A Novel
- By: Charles Soule
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Anyone masterfully interweaves the present-day story of the discovery and development of the flash with the gritty tale of one woman’s crusade to put an end to the darkness it has brought to the world 25 years after its creation. Like Blade Runner crossed with Get Out, Charles Soule’s thought-provoking work of speculative fiction takes us to a world where identity, morality, and technology collide.
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Less than the sum of its parts (spoilers)
- By Amazon Customer on 03-11-20
By: Charles Soule
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Guerra nuclear [Nuclear War]
- Un escenario [A Scenario]
- By: Annie Jacobsen, Gemma Deza Guil - translator
- Narrated by: Francia Castañeda
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Solo hay un escenario, aparte del impacto de un asteroide, capaz de acabar con el mundo tal como lo conocemos en cuestión de horas: una guerra nuclear. Hasta ahora, nadie fuera de los círculos oficiales ha sabido con exactitud qué sucedería si un estado rebelde lanzara una cabeza nuclear contra el Pentágono. Segundo a segundo y minuto a minuto, estos son los acontecimientos, acciones y protocolos reales que coreografían el fin de la civilización.
By: Annie Jacobsen, and others
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The Doomsday Machine
- By: Daniel Ellsberg
- Narrated by: Steven Cooper
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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The Doomsday Machine is Ellsberg's hair-raising insider's account of the most dangerous arms buildup in the history of civilization, whose legacy - and renewal under the Obama administration - threatens the very survival of humanity. It is scarcely possible to estimate the true dangers of our present nuclear policies without penetrating the secret realities of the nuclear strategy of the late Eisenhower and early Kennedy years, when Ellsberg had high-level access to them.
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Fascinating Insider Story
- By Terry Masters on 12-07-17
By: Daniel Ellsberg
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The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States
- By: Jeffrey Lewis
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States is an exciting piece of "speculative fiction." The novel posits that there was a nuclear attack against the US on March 21, 2020 by North Korea, and that a national bipartisan commission was created to investigate what and how it happened. It's pretty scary stuff.
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Speculation, but, well done.
- By brian on 10-16-18
By: Jeffrey Lewis
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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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The Bomb
- Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War
- By: Fred Kaplan
- Narrated by: Edward Bauer
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Fred Kaplan, hailed by The New York Times as “a rare combination of defense intellectual and pugnacious reporter,” takes us into the White House Situation Room, the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s “Tank” in the Pentagon, and the vast chambers of Strategic Command to bring us the untold stories - based on exclusive interviews and previously classified documents - of how America’s presidents and generals have thought about, threatened, broached, and just barely avoided nuclear war from the dawn of the atomic age until today.
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Excellent, important book, bad narration.
- By Richard L. Hubbell on 02-06-20
By: Fred Kaplan
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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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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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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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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
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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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2034
- A Novel of the Next World War
- By: Elliot Ackerman, Admiral James Stavridis USN
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, P.J. Ochlan, Vikas Adam, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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From two former military officers and award-winning authors comes a chillingly authentic geopolitical thriller that imagines a naval clash between the US and China in the South China Sea in 2034 - and the path from there to a nightmarish global conflagration.
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Meh....
- By Ronald A McBroom-Teasley on 03-10-21
By: Elliot Ackerman, and others
What listeners say about Nuclear War
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- Anonymous User
- 05-06-24
Stunning, compelling, frightening
One of the most intense books I’ve read in a long, long time.
Though this isn’t non-fiction, it’s well researched and compelling in its adherence to facts, truths, and likely scenarios.
If nothing else, it’s a must read for anyone who wants to consider the futility of believing we are “safe” from the worst of humanity and our ability to ignore reason.
Compelling, frightening, and well done. Thanks to Dan Carlin for highlighting this amazing book.
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- S. Schmidt
- 04-30-24
Thorough description of how things will happen...
A somewhat depressing explanation of the ticking clock to annihilation of all we know. Us fickle Americans should take note when we go about our daily lives and how things could change so fast.
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- David
- 05-04-24
Awesome listen!
The horrible (in a good way) facts and terrors of what can happen at any moment without nearly anyone on Earth having a say.
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- Lisa S Wilcox
- 04-22-24
Terrifying
As a retired aerospace engineer I thought I knew the scenario pretty well, until I read this book. As someone who understands technical systems and what can and eventually does go wrong in almost all complex situations, it makes me appreciate the life that we are currently able to live. Unfortunately the people who need to read this book probably won’t read it; I’m talking about the people who might be able to prevent it from happening. I only saw one flaw in the scenario as presented; I won’t go into detail on it lest I give away the story But the flaw, if corrected, might have influenced decisions that were made. It doesn’t change the main message that people need to hear though.
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- Tamara D.
- 04-24-24
Wake up call
Scariest book I’ve ever read! I had no idea when I chose this that the author had done so much research. Quite a wake up call. This book is written so that it moves quickly and I couldn’t stop. Learned a lot.
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-28-24
Different than others on the topic
This is a mix of history, thrill, and one potential future. Must listen. 5 stars
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- Tara
- 04-26-24
Informative & SCARY
This reads like a fiction book but it could all happen….
Let’s Pray it doesn’t
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- Fernando
- 03-27-24
just, wow
This is definitely a must listen/read. This is scarier then Stephen King. I can't stop listening.
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- Guilherme Cunha
- 03-28-24
Partial in Global Scope
The book offers compelling insights into the harrowing scenario of nuclear war, presenting a chilling portrayal of its devastating consequences. However, a notable omission lies in the author's neglect of regions that would likely be less affected by such a event. By predominantly focusing on the Northern Hemisphere, the narrative inadvertently overlooks the nuanced global impact, failing to provide a comprehensive examination of the potential aftermath. Despite this flaw, the book's strengths shine through in its vivid depiction of the horrors of nuclear conflict, serving as a poignant reminder of the urgent need for peace and disarmament
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- Nancy B.
- 03-31-24
Good information
Well written and researched. Also terrifying. Thank you Annie Jacobsen for writing this important book.
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