Nuclear War book by Annie Jacobsen

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‘Nuclear war happens in seconds and minutes, not days and weeks’: How I researched the end of the world

An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency

The Pentagon’s Brain

From the bestselling author of Nuclear War: A Scenario. 
 
Discover the untold story of America's most powerful military science agency. 
 
In this first-ever history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful and most controversial military science R&D agency, Sunday Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to demystify DARPA, ‘the Pentagon's brain’. 
 
Since its Cold War inception in 1958, DARPA’s innovations have shaped the modern world – from its role in the development of the Internet and GPS to stealth technology. Yet, the agency's cutting-edge projects remain cloaked in secrecy, often outpacing public domain advancements by decades. In this groundbreaking account, Jacobsen uncovers DARPA's hidden history, triumphs and controversies, exploring its role in pioneering technologies that redefine warfare and society as it questions the wisdom of allowing DARPA to determine what lies ahead.

Annie Jacobsen is the bestselling author of Nuclear War: A Scenario, which was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize. A 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist, her other books include Area 51, Operation Paperclip and Surprise, Kill, Vanish, and have been translated into 26 languages. She also writes and produces TV, including Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan. A graduate of Princeton University, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two sons.

In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain," from its Cold War inception in 1958 to the present.This is the book on DARPA -- a compelling narrative about this clandestine intersection of science and the American military and the often frightening results.

The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America

Operation Paperclip

The bestselling author of Nuclear War: A Scenario tells the gripping story of a decades-long, covert project to bring Hitler's scientists and their families to the United States. 
 
In the chaos following the Second World War, the US government faced a critical decision: what to do with the great scientific minds of the Third Reich. Many were accused of war crimes, and others had stood trial at Nuremberg; one was convicted of mass murder. Nevertheless, the US government secretly decided that their knowledge of rocketry and medical advances were vital to the outcome of the Cold War. 
 
Drawing on exclusive interviews with dozens of Paperclip family members, colleagues, and interrogators, and dossiers discovered in archives across the world, Annie Jacobsen follows more than a dozen German scientists through their postwar lives and into one of the most startling, complex, nefarious, and jealously guarded government secrets of the twentieth century. 
 
‘Chilling and riveting ... a remarkable achievement of investigative reporting and historical writing’ Boston Globe 
 
‘The most in-depth account yet of the lives of Paperclip recruits and their American counterparts’ New York Times Book Review

In the chaos following the Second World War, the US government faced a critical decision: what to do with the great scientific minds of the Third Reich. Many were accused of war crimes, and others had stood trial at Nuremberg; one was convicted of mass murder. Nevertheless, the US government secretly decided that their knowledge of rocketry and medical advances were vital to the outcome of the Cold War. 
 
Drawing on exclusive interviews with dozens of Paperclip family members, colleagues, and interrogators, and dossiers discovered in archives across the world, Annie Jacobsen follows more than a dozen German scientists through their postwar lives and into one of the most startling, complex, nefarious, and jealously guarded government secrets of the twentieth century. 
 
‘Chilling and riveting ... a remarkable achievement of investigative reporting and historical writing’ Boston Globe 
 
‘The most in-depth account yet of the lives of Paperclip recruits and their American counterparts’ New York Times Book Review

The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis

Phenomena

From the author of Nuclear War: A Scenario, this is the gripping story of how a select group of scientists, under the watchful eye of the CIA, sought to harness the power of the mind as tools of espionage and warfare. 
 
‘A well-researched and fascinating tale’ Forbes 
 
This is a book about a team of scientists and psychics with top secret clearances. 
 
For more than forty years, the U.S. government has researched extrasensory perception, using it in attempts to locate hostages, fugitives, secret bases, and downed fighter jets, to divine other nations' secrets, and even to predict future threats to national security. 
 
The intelligence agencies and military services involved include CIA, DIA, NSA, DEA, the Navy, Air Force, and Army-and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Now, for the first time, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen tells the story of these radical, controversial programs, using never before seen declassified documents as well as exclusive interviews with, and unprecedented access to, more than fifty of the individuals involved. Speaking on the record, many for the first time, are former CIA and Defense Department scientists, analysts, and program managers, as well as the government psychics themselves. 
 
Who did the U.S. government hire for these top secret programs, and how do they explain their military and intelligence work? How do scientists approach such enigmatic subject matter? What interested the government in these supposed powers and does the research continue? 
 
Phenomena is a riveting investigation into how far governments will go in the name of national security.

This is a book about a team of scientists and psychics with top secret clearances. 
 
For more than forty years, the U.S. government has researched extrasensory perception, using it in attempts to locate hostages, fugitives, secret bases, and downed fighter jets, to divine other nations' secrets, and even to predict future threats to national security. 
 
The intelligence agencies and military services involved include CIA, DIA, NSA, DEA, the Navy, Air Force, and Army-and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Now, for the first time, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen tells the story of these radical, controversial programs, using never before seen declassified documents as well as exclusive interviews with, and unprecedented access to, more than fifty of the individuals involved. Speaking on the record, many for the first time, are former CIA and Defense Department scientists, analysts, and program managers, as well as the government psychics themselves. 
 
Who did the U.S. government hire for these top secret programs, and how do they explain their military and intelligence work? How do scientists approach such enigmatic subject matter? What interested the government in these supposed powers and does the research continue? 
 
Phenomena is a riveting investigation into how far governments will go in the name of national security.

Annie Jacobsen

As gripping as any thriller, her book brilliantly portrays the horrific reality of nuclear war.

A stomach-clenching, multi-perspective, ticking-clock, geopolitical thriller rooted in the seeds of our own destruction, planted nearly 80 years ago at the Trinity test site by the scientists of the Manhattan Project who brazenly dared to rip the building blocks of our universe apart... I couldn’t put the thing down, feverishly turning page after page until I finished it on the plane ride home... Nuclear War: A Scenario should be required reading for everyone alive today.

Books like Annie Jacobsen’s gripping Nuclear War: A Scenario are 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.

Based on hundreds of interviews with many retired security officials and more-or-less declassified information in the public domain, what it captures brilliantly is the emotional chaos into which leaders would be plunged in such a situation.... These are scenes straight out of Dr Strangelove.

This terrifying book is a must-read for every world leader.

Extraordinary... Her book delivers more detail than has been available to the public before... Terrifying.

Using hard data from top military, government, and scientific sources, and brilliantly weaving in historical facts and technical data, Annie Jacobsen masterfully explains the nuclear issue in riveting story form, turning her readers into experts on the one issue that must concern us all. I guarantee that even the most knowledgeable readers will learn something, if not a lot. Everyone, especially politicians and heads of state, must read this important and very timely book. I cannot recommend it enough.

Carlos Umaña, co-president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Not one to read if you have trouble sleeping.

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.

In Nuclear War: A Scenario, Annie Jacobsen, gives us a vivid picture of what could happen if our nuclear guardians fail…Terrifying.

A vivid account... Jacobsen lucidly lays out complex information, based on well-referenced research and interviews with credible experts... The current global arrangements for managing risk and preventing cataclysm cannot be taken for granted.

Jacobsen seeks to break through jargon and details in order to tell a terrifying story in a devastatingly straightforward way.

In a horrific minute-by-minute overview, Jacobsen brings to life the insane and impossible pressures heaped on decision-makers - and the doomsday ending for humanity. Maybe we all need to learn to start worrying about the bomb.

'The attack is hypothetical, but the resultant scenarios are based on interviews with military experts — and they’re terrifying... An undeniably gripping narrative. I can see why the Baillie Gifford judges were so hooked.'

What readers are saying about Nuclear War: 
 
'At times I felt as if I was reading fiction and had to keep reminding myself that it's fact' 
 
'It reads like a thriller... a brilliant read and impressive feat of research and storytelling' 
 
'This book is a must-read for anyone who thinks nuclear weapons are the problem of a bygone era' 
 
'Exceptionally well researched, the author’s sources are impeccable, ably supported by technical information... a hugely powerful, sobering and compelling read' 
 
'Clearly very well researched and well sourced. 10/10' 
 
'A hugely informative piece of work that gives an enlightening insight into the world we live in today'

A Scenario

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. Frantic calls over secure lines work to confirm the worst as armoured helicopters are scrambled to evacuate the chosen few to secure bunkers. One nuclear missile will provoke two dozen in return. 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. 
 
Based on dozens of new interviews with military and civilian experts, 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.

Annie Jacobsen

Praise for Nuclear War

As gripping as any thriller, her book brilliantly portrays the horrific reality of nuclear war.

A stomach-clenching, multi-perspective, ticking-clock, geopolitical thriller rooted in the seeds of our own destruction, planted nearly 80 years ago at the Trinity test site by the scientists of the Manhattan ...

**Books like Annie Jacobsen’s gripping Nuclear War: A Scenario are essential** if you want to understand the complex and disturbing details that go into a civilization-destroying decision to drop the Bomb ...

As gripping as any thriller, her book brilliantly portrays the horrific reality of nuclear war.

A stomach-clenching, multi-perspective, ticking-clock, geopolitical thriller rooted in the seeds of our own destruction, planted nearly 80 years ago at the Trinity test site by the scientists of the Manhattan ...

**Books like Annie Jacobsen’s gripping Nuclear War: A Scenario are essential** if you want to understand the complex and disturbing details that go into a civilization-destroying decision to drop the Bomb ...

As gripping as any thriller, her book brilliantly portrays the horrific reality of nuclear war.

A stomach-clenching, multi-perspective, ticking-clock, geopolitical thriller rooted in the seeds of our own destruction, planted nearly 80 years ago at the Trinity test site by the scientists of the Manhattan ...

**Books like Annie Jacobsen’s gripping Nuclear War: A Scenario are essential** if you want to understand the complex and disturbing details that go into a civilization-destroying decision to drop the Bomb ...

Books by Annie Jacobsen

Articles featuring Annie Jacobsen

‘Nuclear war happens in seconds and minutes, not days and weeks’: How I researched the end of the world

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Praise for Nuclear War

As gripping as any thriller, her book brilliantly portrays the horrific reality of nuclear war.

A stomach-clenching, multi-perspective, ticking-clock, geopolitical thriller rooted in the seeds of our own destruction, planted nearly 80 years ago at the Trinity test site by the scientists of the Manhattan ...

Books like Annie Jacobsen’s gripping Nuclear War: A Scenario are essential if you want to understand the complex and disturbing details that go into a civilization-destroying decision to drop the Bomb ...

As gripping as any thriller, her book brilliantly portrays the horrific reality of nuclear war.

A stomach-clenching, multi-perspective, ticking-clock, geopolitical thriller rooted in the seeds of our own destruction, planted nearly 80 years ago at the Trinity test site by the scientists of the Manhattan ...

Books like Annie Jacobsen’s gripping Nuclear War: A Scenario are essential if you want to understand the complex and disturbing details that go into a civilization-destroying decision to drop the Bomb ...

As gripping as any thriller, her book brilliantly portrays the horrific reality of nuclear war.

A stomach-clenching, multi-perspective, ticking-clock, geopolitical thriller rooted in the seeds of our own destruction, planted nearly 80 years ago at the Trinity test site by the scientists of the Manhattan ...

Books like Annie Jacobsen’s gripping Nuclear War: A Scenario are essential if you want to understand the complex and disturbing details that go into a civilization-destroying decision to drop the Bomb ...

Books by Annie Jacobsen

Articles featuring Annie Jacobsen

‘Nuclear war happens in seconds and minutes, not days and weeks’: How I researched the end of the world

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter

**Books like Annie Jacobsen’s gripping Nuclear War: A Scenario are essential** if you want to understand the complex and disturbing details that go into a civilization-destroying decision to drop the Bomb ...

**Books like Annie Jacobsen’s gripping Nuclear War: A Scenario are essential** if you want to understand the complex and disturbing details that go into a civilization-destroying decision to drop the Bomb ...

**Books like Annie Jacobsen’s gripping Nuclear War: A Scenario are essential** if you want to understand the complex and disturbing details that go into a civilization-destroying decision to drop the Bomb ...