’Visionary Battle Scenes’: Reading Sir John Hackett’s The Third World War, 1977–85

This article examines the writing and reception of Sir John Hackett’s bestselling 1978 novel The Third World War. The retired British general and a team of collaborators produced a vision of global conflict that found an enthusiastic audience around the world. I argue that Hackett’s book succeeded in large part because he reflected growing anxieties about the future of the Cold War just as the superpower confrontation entered a period of dangerous instability. This novel also helped to inspire the modern literary genre of the techno-thriller, which remains commercially and intellectually important today.