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NATIONAL BESTSELLER A Pulitzer Prize Finalist and the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, 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.
- Sales Rank: #62370 in Books
- Published on: 2015-09-22
- Released on: 2015-09-22
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.50" h x 1.75" w x 6.50" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 560 pages
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of September 2015: If you’re searching for an obtuse, synapse-dulling book on DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and its mission to create breakthrough military technologies, look elsewhere. Jacobsen’s nimble account of the ultra-secret R&D arm of the Defense Department engagingly details the shrouded history of the organization, starting with its genesis during the nuclear arms race and covering its efforts up through today. In her final section, Jacobsen offers solid but chilling conjectures on what covert programs DARPA is focused on now. Jacobsen (a journalist and the author of Operation Paperclip and Area 51) strikes a balance between lauding the technology leaps driven by DARPA and pointing out that the ultimate goal is to create wartime tools to guarantee U.S. dominance. DARPA’s successes include lighter machine guns (developed for slighter-bodied soldiers during the Vietnamese war and now standard U.S. issue), the Internet, GPS, and drones. Says Jacobsen, “DARPA creates, DARPA dominates, and when sent to the battlefield, DARPA destroys.” But, Jacobsen also asks, “what if some of these ‘dramatic new capabilities’ are not such a great idea?”
Hawks will find plenty of meat in here to fuel their arguments for the value of top-secret U.S. military programs. At the same time, doves will be well bolstered to pose uncomfortable questions about the worthiness of such activities in a free country. Thoughtful and nuanced, The Pentagon’s Brain will ask you to use your brain as well.--Adrian Liang
Review
Pulitzer Prize Finalist in History
One of The Washington Post's Notable Nonfiction Books of 2015
One of The Boston Globe's Best Books of 2015
One of Amazon's Top 100 Books of 2015
"A brilliantly researched account of a small but powerful secret government agency whose military research profoundly affects world affairs."―The Pulitzer Prize Committee
"Filled with the intrigue and high stakes of a spy novel, Jacobsen's history of DARPA is as much a fascinating testament to human ingenuity as it is a paean to endless industrial warfare and the bureaucracy of the military-industrial complex."―Kirkus Reviews
"A fascinating and unsettling portrait of the secretive U.S. government agency....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."
―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Jacobsen offers a definitive history of the clandestine agency.... She explores the implications of DARPA work on technology that will not be widely known to the public for generations but will certainly impact national security and concepts of war."―Vanessa Bush, Booklist (starred review)
"Jacobsen's account will serve as the model for histories of military research and development and is likely to lead to more works and articles about DARPA.... Engrossing, conversation-starting read..."―Library Journal
"Annie Jacobsen's considerable talents as an investigative journalist prove indispensable in uncovering the remarkable history of one of America's most powerful and clandestine military research agencies. And she is a great storyteller, making the tantalizing tale of The Pentagon's Brain -- from the depths of the Cold War to present day -- come alive on every page."―Gerald Posner, author of God's Bankers
"A fascinating and sometimes uneasy exploration of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency...."―Dina Temple-Raston, The Washington Post
"In this fascinating and terrifying account, Annie Jacobsen regales us with the stories behind the agency's 'consequential and sometimes Orwellian' innovations, including autonomous weapons systems--killer robots that could decide, without human intervention, who lives and who dies."―Bryan Schatz, Mother Jones
"Annie Jacobsen has a gift for unearthing secret, long-buried information."―Mary Ann Gwinn, Seattle Times
"An exciting read that asks an important question: what is the risk of allowing lethal technologies to be developed in secret?"―Ann Finkbeiner, Nature
"The Pentagon's Brain puts Jacobsen in the company of important writers ... such as Shane Harris and Rajiv Chandrasekran."―Chris Bray, Bookforum
About the Author
Annie Jacobsen is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Area 51 and Operation Paperclip and was a contributing editor at the Los Angeles Times Magazine. A graduate of Princeton University, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.
Most helpful customer reviews
53 of 56 people found the following review helpful.
A comprehensive account of the diverse - and sometimes questionable - history of DARPA
By Ash Jogalekar
"The Pentagon's Brain" is a comprehensive history of DARPA which puts the activities of the agency since its formation in the 1950s in perspective. The volume starts by describing the founding of the agency as a response to the scientific and technological threat posed by the Soviet Union and describes the political maneuvering involved in making the organization as independent as possible.
The book takes stock of many of the projects and paradigms DARPA has worked on since the beginning. Not surprisingly, early work focused on nuclear weapons, missile defense, spy satellites and submarine warfare, topics that were all relevant to the Cold War. With time the agency's mandate expanded to cover 'psychological warfare' and more human intelligence-centric projects. The book does a good job portraying the controversial activities of DARPA and its advisors, an elite group of scientists called the JASONS, during the Vietnam war. Later work by the agency was also not without controversy, like its advocacy of the missile defense shield Star Wars and its use of codebreaking that could be used to spy on the country's own citizens. Described too are peaceful inventions which DARPA pioneered such as health interventions on the battlefield, the Internet and the Human Terrain Project developed during the recent Iraq War which was gained at understanding populations in occupied countries; as the book says however, even such more benign endeavors often backfired since the information gained from them could cause resentment among occupied populations.
For me, two aspects of the book were particularly revealing. One was the sharp profiles of leading scientists like Herbert York, John von Neumann, Edward Teller, and Nicholas Christofilos (a remarkable and colorful character; a Greek elevator mechanic who created some of the most brilliant and audacious defense-related ideas in DARPA's history). The second was the accounts of diverse modern technologies that DARPA has contributed to (for obvious reasons, many weapons technologies like directed energy weapons are stated but not discussed). For instance, while drones are commonplace on the battlefield today, their first use was during the Vietnam war. Similarly I was not aware that the AR-15/M16 rife was invented by DARPA scientists. My minor gripe with the book was that it does not delve as much into the science as it could have and seems to contain some errors; for instance Enrico Fermi never told President Truman that the hydrogen bond was an evil thing (he voiced that opinion in an analysis by the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission), and a JASON report on the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Vietnam was not commissioned by Robert McNamara (it was inspired by a careless remark by a high-ranking general at a party).
Nonetheless, "The Pentagon's Brain" is a comprehensive and well-researched account of the myriad varieties of science and technology that DARPA has worked on and how they have affected many modern aspects of our technological existence. And as the narrative concludes, while DARPA has inevitably contributed to peaceful technologies (and these tend to be always emphasized in popular news sources), it should not be forgotten that the principal mandate of the organization remains the development of the weapons of tomorrow. Thus there will always be a moral ambiguity to the work done by DARPA.
20 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
Fascinating
By Tom Soininen
I found The Pentagon's Brain utterly fascinating. At age 73, Ms Jacobsen's writing gives clarity to 'history' that I have lived through. Her writing in this, as in her previous two books, makes this history come alive as she chronicles now unclassified, top secret defense initiatives of the last 60 years. Not only does she delve into the complicated technical issues, but she makes it compelling as she captures the perspectives of those intimately involved. Found it fascinating to learn about our Defense Department's top secret and controversial research and development agency - DARPA. For me it was a page-turner.
40 of 54 people found the following review helpful.
She gets almost everything wrong about DARPA and GPS
By Richard Easton
In the last decade, I have written and spoken extensively about GPS. I am the co-author of GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones, a narrative history of its invention and development. Recently, I was listening to a podcast of an interview with Annie Jacobson at the Spy Museum. I was surprised that she credited DARPA with the creation of GPS, since NONE of my research supports this. So I got a copy of her book to see what it claims.
On pages 249-250, she makes many incorrect statements:
“DARPA’s pioneering GPS program was called TRANSIT.” Transit was the first satellite based navigation system; it was conceptualized in 1958. DARPA played a major role in the program by funding it. GPS refers to a later system begun in 1973. Transit was NEVER called GPS.
“After several failed launches, TRANSIT finally took up residence in space in June 1963. To deny enemy access to this kind of precise targeting information, the system was originally designed with an offset built in, called selective availability (SA).” Selective availability was a degradation of the civilian signal for GPS. It was not used on Transit, which was much less precise.
“In 1973, the Pentagon ordered DARPA to create a single system shared by all the military services.” As I mentioned, she made a similar statement at the Spy Museum. This is incorrect. On April 17, 1973, Deputy Secretary of Defense William P. Clements, Jr., ordered the Air Force to be the executive service for a Joint Program Office for the Defense Navigation Satellite System (later called GPS). It was to be a joint Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force Program Office. DARPA was not mentioned because it played no role in the 1973 JPO. Later, DARPA funded development of miniaturized GPS receivers, but it DID NOT create the 1973 synthesis of the Navy’s Timation and the Air Force’s 621B programs (this is covered in detail in GPS Declassified). The Decision Coordinating Paper Number 121 (Revised) Defense Navigation Satellite Development Program (June 7, 1973) covers a meeting on the West Coast on June 6 and 7, 1973. There were Navy, Air Force and Army presentations. DARPA is nowhere mentioned because it was not involved in the process.
Ms. Jacobsen has an endnote for page 250 which references https://archive.org/stream/DARPATechnicalAccomplishmentsandHistoricalReviewofSelectedDARPAProjectsVolume1/DARPA%20Technical%20Accomplishments%20and%20Historical%20Review%20of%20Selected%20DARPA%20Projects%20Volume%201_djvu.txt She appears to have not read this reference very closely, since it correctly states that “TRANSIT is scheduled to be replaced by the DoD Global Positioning System (GPS) which uses different technology, in 1996.” Her assertion that DARPA developed GPS in 1973 is not found in this document, so it’s unclear what the source of this fable was. Perhaps it stems from her confusion of Transit with GPS. There are eighteen references to GPS in the document, but it nowhere claims that DARPA played a role in its initial formulation in 1973. Many of the references pertain to the dual use of GPS satellites which carry nuclear detonation detection systems in addition to the navigational instruments. Phil Klass, in the 11/26/73 issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology, wrote that the [Defense Navigation Satellite System] program has been renamed the Global Positioning System.
On page 253 she states that [under Secretary of Defense Harold Brown in the Carter Administration] “Global Positioning System technologies were accelerated at whirlwind speeds”. It’s true that the first Block 1 (test) GPS satellites were launched in the Carter Administration. However, in 1979 it cut back GPS from 24 to 18 satellites. This would have limited its accuracy and usefulness. When the Block 2 (operational) satellites were launched beginning in 1989, the decision was made to go back to 24 satellites. Thus, there was no acceleration of GPS under Secretary Brown; rather there were significant cut backs in the program.
I have not read the rest of the book, but the sloppy research on GPS is in line with the criticisms of her earlier books, and calls into question the factual bases for other DARPA projects she discussed. I posted a brief criticism of the book on her website. I commend her for allowing it to appear. That demonstrates that she is a person of integrity. Perhaps she will correct the section on GPS in a subsequent edition of the book. There is a vast literature on the creation of GPS (and controversy about the relative importance of the Navy’s Timation system, which my dad Roger Easton began in 1964, versus the Air Force’s 621B). It’s surprising that Ms. Jacobsen appears to be unaware of it.
GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones
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