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Nuclear War

A Scenario

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Nuclear War

By: Annie Jacobsen
Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

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 it could start in as little as 26 minutes and 40 seconds from now…

A pulse-pounding non-fiction thriller for listeners of American Prometheus by Kai Bird or Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham.

The first rule of nuclear war is that there are no rules.

Up to now, no one outside of 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 civilisation as we know it.

If a single nuclear missile is launched, it provokes two dozen in return. Frantic calls over secure lines work to confirm the worst as armoured helicopters are scrambled outside. Decisions over hundreds of millions of lives need to be made within six minutes, based on partial information, knowing that once launched, nothing is capable of halting the destruction.

Because the plans for General Nuclear War are among the most classified secrets held by the United States government, this book takes the listener up to the razor’s edge of what can legally be known. Based on dozens of new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, been privy to the response plans, and been responsible for the decisions that will be made, 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.

©2024 Annie Jacobsen (P)2024 Penguin Audio
Future Studies Military Politics & Government War Scary Ancient Greece
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What listeners say about Nuclear War

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World War 4 Will Be Fought With Sticks And Stones

Human stupidity laid bare in horrific detail. Grippingly read by its author. Your life will never be the same on hearing this fact based minute by minute scenario. Truly shocking that such weapons exist and in such vast numbers. Launched on purpose or in error, the doomsday clock is ticking ever closer to a world wide extinction level event

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Illuminating view of a crazily possible event

Great detail and meticulously written and read by the author. Highly recommend all sane humans digest this information.

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Interesting listen

Really enjoyed this. Very sobering and I would have liked more detail post war, but I recommend anyone interested in the subject matter

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Read it, you will weep

The fundamental insanity of nuclear war is laid bare in this book. Trillions of dollars of our global taxes have produced this capability. What non-destructive uses could those dollars have been put to?

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Horror Of The Devil.

There are so many questions that this book leaves us with. Could WW2 have been won without this weapon. Would 6 million sacrificed during the invasion of Japan been the right thing to do... considering the consequences of the Bomb. Couldn't we have developed Nuclear Energy with out the Bomb! I would think due to humanity being a destructive being the answer is no.

Sadly we are all left to live under this menace and although we have good intentions of disarming from Atom and Hydrogen Bombs, we wont.

Will it be that one day in the distant future, someone digs up a reminder of our past? Who can tell, one thing is for sure... daily we now live with the destruction of humanity in our grip. It scares the hell out of me.

On three separate occasions I had to stop listening, to try to understand, to get a true grip on what we have built and continue to explore still. I can't. I truly can't understand why.

This is a must listen and should be in ever schools library.

I won't say enjoy..... but stick with it, if you can.

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Terrifying

Terrifyingly stark description of what might await a few minutes, and a few bad decisions into our future.

Having no ‘expertise’ I’ll assume the authors explanation of the science, technology and procedural detail is broadly accurate.

The narrative she constructs is one most people are vaguely aware of but probably either choose not to think about or dismiss as improbable.

The utterly believable narrative strips away any such illusions and personally I haven’t been this frightened reading a book in a long, long time. The disquiet being amplified by the fact that when you finish the book, none of the causes that fear is based upon have gone away, nor perhaps can be shut out in the way they were before. Be careful, once you know something you can’t unknowingly it.

The only disappointment I felt, was the authors views (as I interpret them) that deterrence doesn’t work, possession of nuclear weapons is madness and we just need to get off the treadmill.

How do you uninvent a technology? While deterrence may not in the long run prevent a despot (or democracy) launching nuclear weapons, I’m absolutely sure that unilateral disarmament by nuclear democratic powers would increase the chances of despotic use. Deterrence may be imperfect, but I prefer it to its absence.

Some time on how nuclear escalation might be achievable given the world and nuclear powers as they are, and might be, would have been a really interesting addition; and maybe slightly less terrifying ending to a thought provoking and disturbing book.

But I’m guessing her point is we have little grounds for hope and have yet to earn ourselves a happy ending; though it might not be too late to do so.

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Scary stuff everyone should know

Very well researched. Terrifying how a few wrong, stupid or psychopathic decisions could end us all. The information in this book is something everyone should have a basic understanding of.

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hopeless

Putin and Kim makes it already two mad Kings that could start this any day now, and the number of these will grow. The even more dangerous Trump with his me or nothing narcissism should be counted in as well. He has millions of mentally blinded followers that would execute without thinking a second.

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Great book, but

Very insightful. Also thought the narration was good. It does, however, describe a worst case scenario where communication completely fails (which seems somewhat unrealistic) and retaliation is in proportionate. Still, highly recommended!

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Good story, hard to listen to.

This was quite a nice title. If I could experience it over, I'd read it. The narrator (which I belive is the writer) obviously want the best for her book, but I found it very monotone, robot-like and the stange pauses ... how do I put this ... boring. I found myself loosing focus and having to rewind a little to catch up.

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