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The Next War: 15 Books on How Wars Begin, How They'd Be Fought, and How to Survive One
15
items Every war on my other lists started the same way—with people who were sure it could never happen, or sure it would be over by Christmas. With the headlines the way they are, I wanted a list that looks forward as well as back. This is a mix of the bes...
Sections
3
THE FUSE IS LIT: HOW WARS BEGIN
WAR-GAMED: THE CONFLICT TO COME
WHEN IT COMES HOME
THE FUSE IS LIT: HOW WARS BEGIN
History books that read like thrillers. These are about the decisions, misunderstandings and arms races that turned peace into catastrophe—and the moments where it was only just avoided. If you only read one section, make it this one.
The opening month of WWI and the generals who planned for a short war. Required reading for anyone who thinks leaders always know what they are doing, though many say the Guns of August is more a work of fiction, it is still an important book. This i...
The Guns of August & The Proud Tower by Barbara W. Tuchman (Folio Society Set)
A real lesson on how we can stumble into crisis. Nobody wanted a world war, and everybody walked into one. The most unsettling history book I can recommend right now.
The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark
The Cuban Missile Crisis hour by hour. The closest we ever came—and how much of it came down to luck. Most of us would not be here had it gone the other way
One Minute to Midnight by Michael Dobbs
The year a NATO exercise nearly convinced Moscow a real attack was coming. Recommended on The Rest Is History, and terrifyingly little-known.
1983: Reagan, Andropov, and a World on the Brink by Taylor Downing
Can America and China escape ‘Thucydides’s Trap'? Uses 2,500 years of history to answer a very modern question.
Destined for War by Graham Allison
WAR-GAMED: THE CONFLICT TO COME
Fiction written by people who actually plan wars for a living—admirals, analysts and defence writers. These are the ‘what if’ novels that get passed around military academies. Tactical, technical and frighteningly plausible.
Co-written by a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander. A US-China clash in the South China Sea that escalates exactly the way you fear it might.
2034: A Novel of the Next World War by Elliot Ackerman & Admiral James Stavridis
Drones, cyber attacks and satellites going dark. Every gadget in it is based on real research—there are footnotes!
Ghost Fleet by P.W. Singer & August Cole
A British general's ‘future history’ of a NATO-Soviet war, written in 1978. A Cold War classic that The Rest Is History keeps coming back to. This is a 1979 first edition.
The Third World War: August 1985 by General Sir John Hackett (1979 First Edition)
The big one. Clancy's conventional World War III in the North Atlantic and the plains of Germany. Pure page-turner. This copy is a signed first edition.
Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy (Signed First Edition)
A modern Russian offensive into Europe, co-written by a US Marine officer. The spiritual successor to Red Storm Rising.
Red Metal by Mark Greaney & Hunter Ripley Rawlings IV
WHEN IT COMES HOME
The front line is not always somewhere else. These books follow ordinary families and towns through the day after—the shortages, the silence and the choices nobody prepares you for. I have finished with two practical guides, because reading about it ...
A minute-by-minute account of how a nuclear exchange would actually unfold, built from interviews with the people who would be in the room. You will not forget it.
Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
A small Florida town after the bombs fall. Written in 1959, still the gold standard for ‘how would we actually cope?’
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
An EMP attack switches America off. A favourite with preparedness readers for a reason—it makes you check your cupboards.
One Second After by William R. Forstchen
Written by a civil defence researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Shelters, ventilation, water and fallout, explained plainly. The classic practical guide.
Nuclear War Survival Skills by Cresson H. Kearny
Food, water, shelter, security and off-grid power—a plan for keeping your household going if the grid goes down for weeks, not days. Practical rather than paranoid.
Prepper's Long-Term Survival Guide by Jim Cobb