• Apocalypse Capitalism
1 1

Apocalypse Capitalism

$41.95
$0.00 $41.95
Sold out
Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Is it easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism?  Drawing on extensive archival research in the UK and the US, thi...
Read More
  • 13 October 2026
View Product Details

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Is it easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism? 

Drawing on extensive archival research in the UK and the US, this book uncovers how Cold War planners planned to keep capitalism alive even after a nuclear apocalypse. 

Through scenario planning, US officials anticipated capitalist recovery, while UK strategies prioritised preserving elite power and restoring the class system. 

By tracing these contrasting imaginaries, the book reveals how capitalism is projected beyond the apocalypse and explores alternative economic futures that emerge when the unthinkable is taken seriously.

files/i.png Icon
Price: $41.95
Pages: 240
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Imprint: Bristol University Press
Publication Date: 13 October 2026
ISBN: 9781529248760
Format: Paperback
BISACs: POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Capitalism, Capitalism, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Economy, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Economic Policy, SOCIAL SCIENCE / General, Sociology, Political economy, Social impact of disasters / accidents (natural or man-made), Economic and financial crises and disasters
REVIEWS Icon
'They planned for the end of the world, but not the end of profit. This archive-shattering book is an urgent, terrifying look at the deep state’s capitalist survival fix.' Ali Rıza Taşkale, Roskilde University
John Preston is Emeritus Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Essex.

1. The Economics of Apocalypse: Imagining Capitalism After the End of the World

2. Contracting Out the Unthinkable in the Late Cold War

3. United Kingdom Plans for Reconstructing Capitalism After a Nuclear War: Proto-Capitalism, Immiseration and Ruling Class Survival

4. United States Plans for Reconstructing Capitalism After a Nuclear War: Preserving Property Rights and Markets

5. Apocalypse Capitalism in Practice: The Spatio-Temporal Legal Fix

6. Apocalypse Communism: Spatio-Temporal-Revolutionary Fissures