Annie Jacobsen – författare

The Sunday Times bestselling edge-of-your-seat exploration of what would happen in the event of nuclear war, perfect for readers of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.Nuclear war begins with a blip on a radar screen.This is a minute-by-minute account of what comes next.It has to be read to be believed.'A stomach-clenching, multi-perspective, ticking-clock, geopolitical thriller' Forbes'Dangerously plausible – and it reads like a thriller' Sunday Times'These are scenes straight out of Dr Strangelove' TelegraphThere is only one scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end the world as we know it in a matter of hours: nuclear war.Until now, no one outside 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 civilization.Decisions that affect hundreds of millions of lives need to be made within six minutes, based on partial information, in the knowledge that once launched, nothing is capable of halting the destruction.Based on dozens of new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, been privy to the response plans, and taken responsibility for crucial decisions, this is the only account of what a nuclear exchange would look like.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.'This terrifying book is a must-read for every world leader' Mother Jones'At once methodical and vivid' The Economist'Tells a terrifying story in a devastatingly straightforward way' Guardian* A New York Times bestseller (March 2024) and a Sunday Times bestseller (April 2024). Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2024, the UK's premier annual prize for non-fiction books.

WITH A NEW AFTERWORDThe INSTANT New York Times bestseller Instant Los Angeles Times bestsellerFinalist, Dayton Literary Peace PrizeOne of NPR's Books We LoveOne of Newsweek Staffers' Favorite Books of the YearShortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize“In Nuclear War: A Scenario, Annie Jacobsen gives us a vivid picture of what could happen if our nuclear guardians fail….Terrifying.”—The Wall Street JournalThere is only one scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end the world as we know it in a matter of hours: nuclear war. And one of the triggers for that war would be a nuclear missile inbound toward the United States.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.Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. 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.

The explosive, untold story of the Cold War's biggest secret from the bestselling author of NUCLEAR WAR: A SCENARIO'An extraordinary book' DAILY EXPRESS'Revelatory . . . the research is compellingly hard-hitting' NEW YORK TIMESIt is the most famous military installation in the world. And no credible insider has ever divulged the truth about his time inside of it. Until now. This is the first book based on interviews with scientists, pilots, and engineers - 58 in total - who provide an unprecedented look into the mysterious activities of a top-secret base, from the Cold War to today. With a jaw-dropping ending, it proves that facts are often more fantastic than fiction, especially when the distinction is almost impossible to make.

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’ ForbesThis 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.

The Sunday Times bestselling edge-of-your-seat exploration of what would happen in the event of nuclear war, perfect for readers of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.*Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2024*'Essential' New York Times'A stomach-clenching, multi-perspective, ticking-clock, geopolitical thriller' Forbes'Tells a terrifying story in a devastatingly straightforward way' GuardianNuclear war begins with a blip on a radar screen.This is a minute-by-minute account of what comes next.It has to be read to be believed.There is only one scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end the world as we know it in a matter of hours: nuclear war.Until now, no one outside 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 civilization as we know it.Decisions that affect hundreds of millions of lives need to be made within six minutes, based on partial information, in the knowledge that once launched, nothing is capable of halting the destruction.Based on dozens of new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, been privy to the response plans, and taken responsibility for crucial decisions, this is the only account of what a nuclear exchange would look like.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.'This terrifying book is a must-read for every world leader' Mother Jones'These are scenes straight out of Dr Strangelove' Telegraph'At once methodical and vivid' The Economist* A New York Times bestseller (March 2024) and a Sunday Times bestseller (April 2024)

The definitive history of the military's decades-long investigation into mental powers and phenomena, from the author of Pulitzer Prize finalist The Pentagon's Brain and international bestseller Area 51.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.

No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history of 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 definitive history of the military's decades-long investigation into boundary-pushing mental phenomena, from the author of the New York Times bestseller Area 51.

THE USA TODAY BESTSELLER'As fast paced as a thriller' Fred Burton, Stratfor Talks' Pen and Sword Podcast'Jacobsen here presents a tour de force exploring the CIA's paramilitary activities...this excellent work feels like uncovering the tip of the iceberg ...Highly recommended for those seeking a better understanding of American foreign policy in action' Jacob Sherman, Library Journal 'A behind-the-scenes look at the most shadowy corners of the American intelligence community...Well-sourced and well-paced, this book is full of surprises' Kirkus'Annie Jacobsen takes us inside the darkest and most morally ambiguous corner of our government, where politicians ask brave men and women to kill-up close and personal-on America's behalf' Garrett M. Graff, author of Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself - While the Rest of us Die'This is a first rate book on the CIA, its paramilitary armies, operators, and assassins' New York Journal of Books'Having already demonstrated her remarkable aptitude for unearthing government secrets in books like Area 51 (2011) and The Pentagon's Brain (2015), Jacobsen pulls back the curtain on the history of covert warfare and state sanctioned assassinations from WWII to the present...Jacobsen's work revealing a poorly understood but essential slice of warfare history belongs in every library collection' BooklistThe definitive, character-driven history of CIA covert operations and U.S. government-sponsored assassinations, from the author of the Pulizter Prize finalist The Pentagon's BrainSince 1947, domestic and foreign assassinations have been executed under the C IA-led covert action operations team. Before that time, responsibility for taking out America's enemies abroad was even more shrouded in mystery. Despite Hollywood notions of last-minute rogue-operations and external secret hires, covert action is actually a cog in a colossal foreign policy machine, moving through, among others, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the House and Senate Select Committees. At the end of the day, it is the President, not the C IA, who is singularly in charge.For the first time, Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen takes us deep inside this top-secret history. With unparalleled access to former operatives, ambassadors, and even past directors of the Secret Service and CIA operations, Jacobsen reveals the inner workings of these teams, and just how far a U.S. president may go, covertly but lawfully, to pursue the nation's interests.

Lexi, a young Mennonite woman from Saskatchewan, comes to work as housekeeper and nanny for a doctor's family in Waterloo, Ontario, during the Depression. Dr. Gerald Oliver is a handsome philanderer who lives with his neurotic and alcoholic wife, Cammy, and their two children. Lexi soon adapts to modern conveniences, happily wears Cammy's expensive cast off clothes, and is transformed from an innocent into a chic urban beauty. When Lexi is called home to Saskatchewan to care for her dying mother, she returns a changed person. At home, Lexi finds a journal written by her older brother during the family's journey from Russia to Canada. In it she reads of a tragedy kept secret for years, one hat reconciles her early memories of her mother as joyful and loving with the burdened woman she became in Canada. Lexi returns to Waterloo, where a crisis of her own, coupled with the knowledge of this secret, serves as the catalyst for her realization that, unlike her mother, she must create her own destiny. Watermelon Syrup is a classic bildungsroman: the tale of a naive young woman at the crossroads of a traditional, restrictive world and a modern one with its freedom, risks, and responsibilities.

'Indefatigable reporting . . . it has become newly topical, too' TelegraphIn this engrossing and deeply disturbing exposé from the bestselling author of Nuclear War: A Scenario, Annie Jacobsen 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

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 while questioning the wisdom of allowing DARPA to determine what lies ahead.

There is an invisible weapon among us.By the time you know you are a victim, it has turned you into a killer.A compelling, fast-paced, ticking clock non-fiction thriller from the author of the bestselling Nuclear War: A Scenario.A lab accident, a bio-attack, a global pandemic, and the collapse of human society. In this explosive new book, based on dozens of new interviews with experts with high-level political, governmental, medical, and military responsibility, Annie Jacobsen examines this very scenario.There is no mushroom cloud, no shock wave or blast. Instead, the scenario that could end the world as we know it begins with something so small and malicious, that when used for evil, only evil can result.This is what could happen; a roadmap to the hours, days, and weeks following the release of a biological agent, that serves as the most essential, forward-looking journalism in preparation for urgent societal upheaval.REVIEWS FOR NUCLEAR WAR: A SCENARIO: 'A stomach-clenching, multi-perspective, ticking-clock, geopolitical thriller' Forbes'Dangerously plausible – and it reads like a thriller' Sunday Times'These are scenes straight out of Dr Strangelove' Telegraph'This terrifying book is a must-read for every world leader' Mother Jones'At once methodical and vivid' The Economist'Tells a terrifying story in a devastatingly straightforward way' Guardian