Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction

By Paul Brians
Professor of English, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington

This new edition of my comprehensive survey of fictional depictions in English of nuclear war and its aftermath has been revised and expanded. In particular, the bibliography has been expanded with over 450 additional entries. The chapters of historical and critical discussion are essentially unchanged.

The original edition is titled Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction 1895-1984 (Kent State University Press, 1987), out of print.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Chapter One: The History of Nuclear War in Fiction
• Chapter Two: The Causes of Nuclear War
• Chapter Three: The Short-Term Consequences of Nuclear War
• Chapter Four: The Long-Term Consequences of Nuclear War
• Chapter Five: Avoiding Nuclear War
• Annotated Bibliography [This is the heart of my research, making up by far the greater bulk of this work. I strongly recommend readers interested in this subject to explore it. Unfortunately I discovered many years after this version of the project was published that links to that material were omitted at the end of the chapters. I have now restored them.]
• Supplementary Checklist
• Research Sources

For a related project by me, see Nuke/Pop.

First mounted January 27, 2003.

Last revised January 5, 2015.