What to Read Next: 8 Books for Our Nuclear Age
New and old, featuring both fiction and non-fiction
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About 29,000 days ago, the Nuclear Age began, irrevocably changing the world forever after — and almost nobody knew about it. The top secret atomic bomb test on July 16, 1945 ushered in a new era that we’re all still living in. Since then, billions of dollars (perhaps trillions) and tens of thousands of careers have been spent prepping, building, and strategizing for nuclear war.
The reality of that type of war is undeniably closer than anyone likes to think about. And yet, it’s worth paying attention to this era’s past, present, and future.
I recently finished two new books about our Nuclear Age and I’ve read several in the last few years that are worth mentioning again. This list is not exhaustive, but it will provide the backbone of your nuclear self-education. I know the glaring omission is Richard Rhodes’ The Making of the Atomic Bomb; I haven’t read it yet, but it’s very high on my list.
For your reading pleasure, here are eight books to inform and educate about the Nuclear Age.
Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses by M. G. Sheftall (2024)
M. G. Sheftall is an American scholar who’s been living and teaching in Japan since the 1980s. This book collects the stories of Hiroshima in a minute-by-minute account, from Enola Gay crewmembers to residents to Japanese military leadership. It’s like John Hersey’s Hiroshima (see below), but with way more background and contextual information available. It’s approachable, compassionate, and absolutely does the job of capturing the unthinkable horror of what happened to Hiroshima in 1945.
Hiroshima: The Last Witness is a must-read if you’re at all interested in World War II history or nuclear history.
Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen (2024)
Annie Jacobsen’s newest title is among the most eye-opening non-fiction books I’ve ever read. She spends 300 pages outlining, by the second, what would happen if the U.S. was hit by an out-of-the-blue nuclear attack. TL;DR — in about one hour, thousands of nukes from multiple countries have been launched and the world is basically done with.
My initial reaction was it felt a bit like gratuitous disaster lit — overly dramatic for the sake of capturing eyeballs. But then it became crystal clear, as detailed by Jacobsen, that top-level military officials spend their lives playing out these exact scenarios.
Nuclear War is a scary book, but well worth reading. Jacobsen’s narrative prowess is such that it’s nearly impossible to put down once you start in.
The MANIAC by Benjamin Labatut (2023)
I just wrote about Labatut’s historical fic masterpiece and it very much deserves inclusion on this list. As much as it’s about scientific progress and the AI age, the bulk of the story is about John von Neumann’s role in the creation and use of the atomic bomb. Rather than the wariness felt by Robert Oppenheimer and others, Labatut brings to life the fac that von Neumann didn’t mind getting his hands dirty:
“They had already put together an entire committee to choose the best targets, but it was actually von Neumann who convinced them that they shouldn’t detonate the devices at ground level, but higher up in the atmosphere, since that way the blast wave would cause incomparably larger damage. He even calculated the optimal height himself—six hundred meters, about two thousand feet. And that is exactly how high our bombs were when they exploded above the roofs of those quaint wooden houses in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
The MANIAC is a fantastic novel on a number of levels.
Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham (2019)
When it came to harvesting nuclear power, the Soviet Union was so intent on building big and building fast that key safety elements were overlooked or flat-out ignored at Chernobyl. Combine that with the Soviet obsession with secrecy and never admitting an error, and you get a recipe for nuclear disaster.
Which is exactly what happened a little after midnight on April 26, 1986.
Though the nuclear physics and the mechanics of the disaster can be a bit complex at times, Higginbotham does an extraordinary job of explaining how the explosion and meltdown happened. Most importantly, he relates how the people of Pripyat (the town around Chernobyl) were impacted, both right away and years on.
American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin (2005)
American Prometheus, made especially famous by last summer’s Oppenheimer movie, is roughly split into thirds: Robert Oppenheimer’s life and career until the Bomb, the Bomb, and the aftermath of the Bomb.
Interestingly, the Bomb itself doesn’t get discussed in great detail, but its impact reverberates through the entire narrative. Rather than getting deep into the physics, Bird and Sherwin skirt around that as much as possible and instead give us the human story of how the Bomb came to be — the big personalities, the politics, the military implications, etc.
I was always excited to pick up this big biography and sped through it much quicker than I expected.
Swan Song by Robert McCammon (1987)
This 1,000-page dystopian epic is often overlooked in favor of Stephen King’s equally big The Stand, but Swan Song is just as deserving of acclaim and may even be the better story.
Robert McCammon starts out with a bang, almost immediately plunging the world into a nuclear apocalypse. Some folks have survived, life goes on, and as humans are wont to do, people end up in tribes and small communities that dot the charred landscape. There’s no sun, no crops, no joy to be found.
But Josh and Swan — along with an incredible memorable cast of good vs. evil — fight to make the world whole again. This story is less about the nuclear age than about human nature and our epic struggle to fight for what’s good. It may be a made-up story, but the truths inside are as real as anything else on this list.
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank (1959)
As one of the earliest examples of post-nuclear apocalyptic fiction, Pat Frank Alas, Babylon had an outsized impact not only on the future of the genre, but also anti-war activism in general. Frank’s details weren’t necessarily accurate given what we know today (if anything, he underestimated the devastation), but the broad strokes of what he created turned out to be remarkably prescient.
Frank spent time building out the geopolitical situation as well as the human survival situation to create a compelling narrative that felt personal but also politically astute, all in under 400 pages. Alas, Babylon may be 65 years old, but it’s as readable as ever — and dang entertaining too.
Hiroshima by John Hersey (1946)
With the first publicly published account of what happened in Hiroshima, Hersey followed the intersecting lives of six citizens of that fated city — who would thereafter be known as hibakusha, or “bomb-affected people.” Most of the reporting takes place in the horrific hours and days after “Little Boy” fell near the city center.
Above all, Hersey captured the wild confusion and total unknown. From normal morning routines to death and destruction in a literal flash, the people of Hiroshima could hardly even treat their wounded, as all but a handful of the city’s doctors had been killed or too badly injured to be of any help.
It’s a quick read, and although it doesn’t hit with the same power in 2023 as it did in 1946 — thankfully, modern society now knows the hell wrought by those bombs — Hersey’s account will stay with me forever. It’s rarely graphic, but always visceral and deeply affecting.
Thanks so much for reading. I deeply appreciate your time and inbox space!
-Jeremy
P.S. In addition to this newsletter, I’m also doing work as a writer, editor, and content strategist, especially for non-profit organizations. If you have any needs in those areas, check out www.thecaspercreative.com.
Thanks for these recommendations, Jeremy. I read On the Beach by Nevil Shute (published in 1957) around 16 years ago when I was in Australia. The storyline, which explored how different (fictional) people in Australia deal with the impending doom of nuclear fallout, has always stayed with me.
“This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.”
Reading this made me feel sick: "...since that way the blast wave would cause incomparably larger damage. (...) And that is exactly how high our bombs were when they exploded above the roofs of those quaint wooden houses in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” Thanks for giving these recommendations about an important and devastating development in human history.