Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen

Now in paperback, the multi-week bestseller

Only one scenario other than an asteroid strike could end the world as we know it in a matter of hours: nuclear war.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario drove widespread global conversation when it first published last year. Written in a ticking-clock style, it is based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, been privy to the response plans, and been responsible for those decisions. 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.

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.

• Paperback
• ISBN: 9780593476116
• 416 pages
• Published by Dutton

• Preorder releases January 27, 2026
• All preorders are non-refundable. Learn more.