The most recommended books on nuclear weapons

Who picked these books? Meet our 60 experts.

60 authors created a book list connected to nuclear weapons, and here are their favorite nuclear weapons books.
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Book cover of Nuclear War: A Scenario

Leo Barron Author Of Eagle Against the Bear

From Leo's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Leo's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Leo Barron Why did Leo love this book?

I liked Annie Jacobsen's Nuclear War: A Scenario because it delves into the terrifying possibility of a nuclear conflict in today's world. The story begins with a nuclear explosion near Washington D.C., and the intensity never lets up from there. I appreciated her meticulous research and investigative skills, and Jacobsen paints a disturbingly realistic picture of what such an event would entail.

Sitting in my reading room, I couldn't help the feeling that I was a missileer stationed in a control center deep in the heart of North Dakota missile field. As I read her book, she seamlessly mixed intense drama with intricate technical descriptions that kept me on the edge of my seat. I was so captivated by her writing that I almost felt like I needed to turn a key and launch a Minuteman III missile myself.

Most important, her writing remains accessible and engaging despite the complex…

By Annie Jacobsen,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Nuclear War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of The Maniac

Julie Kabat Author Of Love Letter from Pig: My Brother's Story of Freedom Summer

From Julie's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Julie's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Julie Kabat Why did Julie love this book?

Wow! In this historical novel, Labatut has developed a totally original structure and writing style. I had barely heard of the polymath John von Neumann, but each aspect of math and science that he touched was indelibly changed forever. Programmable computers, artificial intelligence, you name it. Science, for better and for worse – a stroke of genius, then again, madness. Logic led von Neumann to the theory for nuclear deterrence of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). And the policymakers listened. Labatut builds his story solely through the eyes of those who knew John, whether family, friends, colleagues, or rivals. This novel is a tour-de-force that raises questions about science as it simultaneously furthers and threatens existence.

By Benjamin Labatut,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Maniac as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the author of When We Cease to Understand the World: a dazzling, kaleidoscopic book about the destructive chaos lurking in the history of computing and AIJohnny von Neumann was an enigma. As a young man, he stunned those around him with his monomaniacal pursuit of the unshakeable foundations of mathematics. But when his faith in this all-encompassing system crumbled, he began to put his prodigious intellect to use for those in power. As he designed unfathomable computer systems and aided the development of the atomic bomb, his work pushed increasingly into areas that were beyond human comprehension and control…


Book cover of The Woman with the Cure

Stephanie Dray Author Of Becoming Madam Secretary

From my list on historical fiction women who changed the world.

Why am I passionate about this?

My graduating class in high school once designated me as “the most likely to start a feminist revolution.” That was a lot to live up to, but I’ve made a very small stab at it by writing about women who have changed our world. I love to bring awareness about the contributions great women have made in history, but I also want modern women to see themselves in these struggles. I always say that Historical Fiction is an exercise of empathy, and I hope my work encourages women today to get involved and make a difference in the world, too.

Stephanie's book list on historical fiction women who changed the world

Stephanie Dray Why did Stephanie love this book?

As the daughter of one of the last children to contract polio before the vaccines, I knew this was going to be an important book even before I opened it.

But it was also a page-turning chronicle of Dr. Dorothy Horstmann, a pioneer in the battle to eradicate polio. I was often infuriated by what she faced as a woman in science during the 1950s; it was a very good read that brought much-needed attention to this extraordinary woman’s gifts to medical science.

By Lynn Cullen,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Woman with the Cure as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Huge applause... women have always been in science—despite those who would pretend otherwise.” --Bonnie Garmus, New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry

She gave up everything — and changed the world.

A riveting novel based on the true story of the woman who stopped a pandemic, from the bestselling author of Mrs. Poe.
 
In 1940s and ’50s America, polio is as dreaded as the atomic bomb. No one’s life is untouched by this disease that kills or paralyzes its victims, particularly children. Outbreaks of the virus across the country regularly put American cities in lockdown. Some of the…


Book cover of The Collector

Charles S. Oliviero Author Of The Cohort

From Charles' 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Professor Soldier Strategist Husband Friend

Charles' 3 favorite reads in 2024

Charles S. Oliviero Why did Charles love this book?

It is a believable storyline.

By Daniel Silva,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Collector as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

#1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva is back with an electrifying new thriller.

Legendary art restorer and spy Gabriel Allon joins forces with a brilliant and beautiful master-thief to track down the world's most valuable missing painting but soon finds himself in a desperate race to prevent an unthinkable conflict between Russia and the West.


Book cover of Inheriting the Bomb: The Collapse of the USSR and the Nuclear Disarmament of Ukraine

James Graham Wilson Author Of America's Cold Warrior: Paul Nitze and National Security from Roosevelt to Reagan

From my list on reducing nuclear war risk Cold War to present.

Why am I passionate about this?

Even before recently becoming a dad, I was passionate about reducing the risks of nuclear war. I am also firmly committed to pursuing—yet never fully knowing—the answers when it comes to achieving that. I think that trying to figure out why things happened as they did in the Cold War can sometimes help illuminate partial answers. The late Michael Krepon referred to the period 1985–1992 as the high tide of nuclear agreements and risk reduction, and I retain optimism that it can happen again. Deterrence is equally important. I have spent the past decade working on historical projects covering national security and negotiating sides of the Cold War equation.

James' book list on reducing nuclear war risk Cold War to present

James Graham Wilson Why did James love this book?

I love this book because it tells the story of individuals working on a complicated and unprecedented problem. In December 1991, an independent Ukraine suddenly became the state with the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world. What should its leaders do? Forever after, political scientists have debated a question in the abstract: “Should Ukraine keep its nukes”?

After Russia’s partial invasion in 2014 and full-out invasion in 2022, the question was, “Should Ukraine have kept its nukes?” And Budjeryn does a fantastic job demonstrating how the reality was far more complicated than that framing. It was a messy path to the 1992 Lisbon Protocol and 1994 Budapest Memorandum, by which Ukraine joined the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the 1991 START agreement.

Budjeryn focuses on the human element and an era of uncertainty. I commend this book to anyone who concludes from Russia’s brutality in Ukraine: this is a…

By Mariana Budjeryn,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Inheriting the Bomb as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The collapse of the Soviet Union unleashed the specter of the largest wave of nuclear proliferation in history. Why did Ukraine ultimately choose the path of nuclear disarmament?

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left its nearly 30,000 nuclear weapons spread over the territories of four newly sovereign states: Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine. This collapse cast a shadow of profound ambiguity over the fate of the world's largest arsenal of the deadliest weapons ever created. In Inheriting the Bomb, Mariana Budjeryn reexamines the history of nuclear predicament caused by the Soviet collapse and the subsequent…


Book cover of Nuclear War: A Scenario
Book cover of The Maniac
Book cover of The Woman with the Cure

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