Nuclear War: A Scenario

📚 Why We Recommend It

The moment a nuclear missile leaves its silo, humanity’s fate is condensed into a window of minutes. Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario dissects this doomsday timeline with unflinching precision—not through Hollywood explosions, but in the flicker of radar blips, the weighted silence of underground command centers, and the tremor in the hands of those who must decide, on fragmented intelligence, whether to unleash the unthinkable.

Drawing on exclusive interviews with military insiders and nuclear security experts, the book unpacks every heartbeat of the crisis: the millisecond delays in early-warning systems that could spark miscalculation, the diplomatic lag that might squander a last chance to de-escalate, the 15-minute gap between alert and impact where civilians might still be scrolling through their phones. It doesn’t peddle fear, but lays bare a stark truth: our sense of “safety” hinges on a system as intricate as it is fragile.

This isn’t a book about predicting the end. It’s a wake-up call. In its second-by-second breakdown, you’ll confront civilization’s most urgent question—not how to fear these weapons, but how to guard against the carelessness or arrogance that could ever let them fly. After all, understanding how destruction unfolds is the first step in stopping it.