The Building

The Pentagon has been called many things by many people, but to those who work there, directing the defense of the United States, it is simply “the Building.” Monumental in its five-pointed symmetry, the massive five-sided, five-story structure encompasses over six million square feet of floor space and covers twenty-nine acres of formerly swampy ground. There has always been much more to the Pentagon than concrete, limestone and steel. In The Pentagon, veteran defense writer and novelist David Alexander delivers the inside story on the people who have brought the Building to life, from army chief of staff General George Marshall and Secretary of War Henry Stimson, charged with creating a force that could defeat Germany and Japan, to the “whiz kids” brought to the Pentagon by Kennedy’s Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara. Alexander's look down the corridors of powerunfolds the modern history of the American defense establishment, its personalities and politics, and the evolving role that the Pentagon has played in our national security. From its initial design to its restoration after the attack of 9/11, this book tells the story of the Pentagon as it is inextricably linked to the story of American power and strength.