A review by tobin_elliott
Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen

challenging dark emotional informative tense fast-paced

5.0

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” 
Oppenheimer's famous quote of the Bhagavad Gita after witnessing the first detonation of a nuclear bomb he helped to create.

This is, without a doubt in my mind, the most terrifying book I have ever read. I truly almost stopped listening to the audiobook at least five times, because of the levels of terror I was feeling.

Terror from the idea that there are men ruling countries right now that could start a scenario much like this one.

Terror that these weapons are even an option for warfare.

Terror from the level of human destruction these weapons are capable of.

Terror from the idea that, in the span of a little more than an hour, all the works of man at his best could be wiped away by man at his worst.

Terror at some of the protocols in place to ensure, even if one side dies, they'll still wipe out the other side.

This book is chilling. It's a sobering must-read of the insanity that we live with every single day. It's an important book. 

And it's going to stay with me for the rest of my life.