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Comment by foobarian | Hacker News Reader

It is an interesting question how various countries would turn out after a big civilization reset like a nuclear war. Seems like it would likely go the feudal route with the cruelest warlords rising to the top in various locales (pretty much like narco-lord ruled Mexico). How would the United States turn out? Would the Ohio valley turn into its own kingdom? Texas its own? All of Northeast probably. I wish there was historical fiction along these lines.

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> I wish there was historical fiction along these lines.

Ah, but there is. I highly recommend S.M. Stirling's Emberverse series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emberverse_series

Well worth the read. One Second After: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Second_After is another great choice.

A Canticle for Leibowitz is a famous sci-fi that directly mimics feudalism and the church after nuclear war-- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz

Just finished reading One {second,year} after. It was entertaining but a lot of the story revolves around military inspired heroics and battles. You can tell the author is into military fiction.

Ah, thank you so much for linking "One Second After." I had seen someone recommend this book on HN previously but had lost track of the comment and the title of the book.

Not strictly nuclear war but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer%27s_Hammer is a great read about if a comet nucleus hits the earth, immediate aftermath/ survival and ends with society just beginning to reform.

Ironically, in that book a nuclear power station is a plot device and the key to humanity's survival.

A lot probably depends on the amount of infrastructure left standing. In most of history kingdoms/empires would grow to roughly a week's travel time from the capital, since that's an area that can be effectively governed. Anything larger than that needs a strong local government, which eventually causes a separatist movement.

If a nuclear war destroys a large portion of highways and communication equipment, you probably end up with Houston being ruled by one group, Dallas by another and San Antonio forming a government with Austin.

I think in any scenario where "nuclear war destroys a large portion of highways and communication equipment" then Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin will all be smoking craters.

Here's the 1990 FEMA assessment of nuclear targets in Texas: https://www.webpal.org/SAFE/state/TX/tx_nuclear.htm

Assuming that's accurate, my guess is that Odessa/Midland and Laredo would be Texas's major population centers.

I can recommend A Canticle for Leibowitz - it covers your last point:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz

I wouldn't call it "historical fiction" since that takes "what really happened" as its starting point. On DDG, a query of "post apocalyptic fiction" finds over 1,000 books.

I don't think all of them (e.g. The Hunger Games) are what you're after, but some of them surely are.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1840.Best_Post_Apocalypt...

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