The Pentagon's Brain
An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency
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4.1 • 84 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Discover the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, in this Pulitzer Prize finalist from the author of the New York Times bestseller Area 51.
No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain," from its Cold War inception in 1958 to the present.
This is the book on DARPA -- a compelling narrative about this clandestine intersection of science and the American military and the often frightening results.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Jacobsen (Operation Paperclip) draws on interviews with 71 individuals affiliated with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to paint a fascinating and unsettling portrait of the secretive U.S. government agency. Though many Americans may not be familiar with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which was created by Congress in 1958, they're undoubtedly familiar with the fruits of its organizational labors. The modern computer, the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, the Internet, unmanned aerial vehicles (aka drones), and even massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) all began as DARPA projects. Startling revelations, including the fact that four nuclear weapons were detonated in space during the Cuban Missile Crisis and that insect-shaped drones hovered above American antiwar protests in 2007, pop up through Jacobsen's narrative as she relays how the agency's innovations incorporated mechanical, psychological, and anthropological efforts to wage war. Jacobsen walks a fine line in telling the story of the agency and its innovations without coming across as a cheerleader or a critic, or letting the narrative devolve into a salacious tell-all. Jacobsen's ability to objectively tell the story of DARPA, not to mention its murky past, is truly remarkable, making for a terrifically well-crafted treatise on the agency most Americans know next to nothing about.
Customer Reviews
👍👍kohrp
Great informative read about very impressive if morally ambiguous people and companies. Very sobering as I read in 2024 and book is 10 years old ,yikes!!
Rally good book!
A great read, especially if you are old enough to have experienced the 1940s and 50s.
political commentary
I bought this book for the proposed insights into DARPA ... Instead I got political commentary and warmed over history of ARPA ... I CAN'T RECOMMEND IT!