From a domestic standpoint, the polyglot make-up of the survivors provides Wylie plenty of opportunity to comment on a variety of social issues, not the least being race and male-female relations. The language reflects the book's time, with occasional references to "colored people" and "Negro." Still, Wylie is never overbearing in his examination of those issues. For example, race is explored not only in the context of the issues presented by the civil rights movement but also by discussing racial problems that arose between the Chinese and Japanese.

Wylie, who died in 1971, had a background as broad as the subjects he addresses and it helps make Triumph as intriguing today as it was when first released. In science fiction, he would probably receive the most nods of public recognition as co-author of When Worlds Collide. Yet his 1930 book Gladiator is said to have inspired the character Superman while another book, 1932's The Savage Gentleman, is credited as the inspiration for the pulp hero, Doc Savage, who appeared on newsstands the following year. Yet Wylie also wrote nonfiction and hundreds of short stories, serials, newspaper columns and social critiques.

Triumph is resurrected as the latest installment in the "Beyond Armageddon" series of Bison Books, comprised of reprints of classic novels. Like other works in that series, Triumph is occasionally slightly anachronistic, such as in its references to "colored people," or the fact that the Cold War battle with communism no longer exists. Given the time that has passed, those instances are insignificant compared to the work's overall tone and approach. On the other hand, some readers could not help but wonder if the aberration is that the book's subject — nuclear Armageddon — has not itself become archaic nearly half a century later.