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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: #66017 in Books
- Brand: Little Brown Co
- 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
- Little Brown Co
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
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
A brilliant and much-needed example of investigative journalism
By Mal Warwick
If you’re familiar with the history of the computer industry, you’re no doubt aware that the Internet was conceived and developed by a U.S. Government agency called DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).
Chances are that you don’t know that DARPA also invented drones both big and tiny, Agent Orange, the M16 Assault Rifle, sophisticated sensor technology, the F117A stealth fighter jet, MIRVs (Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles) that carry nuclear weapons, the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, robotic soldiers — and a slew of other military weapons systems, most of them still top secret.
Remember Total Information Awareness, the predecessor to the massive data collection programs of the NSA that Edward Snowden revealed? DARPA was responsible for that one, too. The agency’s work also gave birth to less lethal technologies, including “real-time video processing, noise reduction, image enhancement, and data compression.” It’s difficult to exaggerate the impact of this little-known agency.
All this comes to light in the pages of journalist Annie Jacobsen’s The Pentagon’s Brain, the first full-length study of America’s secretive military research agency.
DARPA’s mission
DARPA was created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower over the strenuous objections of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and just about everyone else in the military establishment. “Its mission is to create revolutions in military science and to maintain technological dominance over the rest of the world.” No doubt there are many in the military and in conservative circles who are thrilled at how successful the agency has been in fulfilling its mission, their original unhappiness notwithstanding. The rest of us should be scared. Very scared.
With its origins in the debates over the use of the hydrogen bomb and the policy of Mutual Assured Destruction in the 1950s, DARPA’s R&D programs have consistently been found on the far frontiers of military science. Among its least savory efforts (among a great many) were a project in 1958 to shield the United States from Soviet attack by exploding nuclear weapons in the upper atmosphere and the use of the herbicide Agent Orange to defoliate the South Vietnamese forests sheltering Vietcong troops. DARPA scientists actually did detonate nuclear weapons in the atmosphere — and you know the story of Agent Orange.
Unpleasant surprises
The Pentagon’s Brain was the product of exhaustive research. Much of the book is based on formerly classified materials that have only lately come to light. Author Annie Jacobsen turned up startling new information in the course of her research. For example, she learned that the world came even closer to Armageddon during the Cuban Missile Crisis than anyone outside top government and military circles was aware: “four nuclear weapons were detonated in space” during those tense days, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union stood on the brink of total nuclear war. (Two of those were the aforementioned bombs sired by DARPA.)
Though born in the grimmest days of the Cold War, DARPA’s work for more than a decade focused on the war in Vietnam. (The agency was originally called just ARPA until Congress got into the act.) That conflict led to the development of the M16 rifle and many other, less celebrated weapons of war. But much of the work involved the social sciences, subcontracted to the RAND Corporation, a name that will be familiar to anyone who lived through those times. ARPA contractors working for RAND helped to justify the notorious Strategic Hamlets program in which South Vietnamese peasants were forcibly removed from their villages and their lands and moved into heavily guarded new settlements. In fairness, the first round of ARPA social scientists found that the Strategic Hamlets were alienating peasants, but their findings were simply rejected by Pentagon leaders and more amenable researchers hired. Similarly, “the agency did not want to hear that the Vietcong could not be defeated. [Administrators] took the position that [the social scientists] had gone off the rails.”
The electronic battlefield
The high profile of many DARPA inventions notwithstanding, what may be its most significant creation was a “system of systems” that is known today as the electronic battlefield. Jacobsen calls it “the most revolutionary piece of military technology of the twentieth century, after the hydrogen bomb.” This concept encompasses the use of remotely piloted attack drones and technology that enhances the ability of individual soldiers. Ultimately, DARPA research is expected to extend the concept into “transhumanism — the notion that man can and will alter the human condition fundamentally by augmenting humans with machines and other means.” One such effort is the DARPA exoskeleton, which bears an uncanny resemblance to The Terminator and Robocop. Another is an effort to “allow future ‘soldiers [to] communicate by thought alone.”
The Pentagon’s Brain is crammed with chilling examples of the brave new world envisioned by DARPA scientists. I would like to think that every member of Congress would read this book — and then take a much more careful look at funding for the Pentagon. Fat chance, eh?
About the author
Annie Jacobsen is the author of three previous nonfiction books about the Pentagon. One relates the story of Operation Paperclip that brought Werner von Braun and other Nazi scientists to the U.S. following World War II. Another is a history of Area 51, which may be the best known and most notorious American military base in existence.
65 of 69 people found the following review helpful.
A comprehensive account of the diverse - and sometimes questionable - history of DARPA
By Ashutosh S. 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.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
An instant classic of investigative research; a definitive history and new standard reference work on DARPA
By Ranger
The Pentagon's Brain is investigative reporter Annie Jacobsen's masterpiece, a brilliant tour-de-force that led to her being a 2016 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. It is the history of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon's military and technology think tank that has been helping the US maintain military dominance on the battlefield since the post-WWII glory days of nuclear weapons development. Thoroughly researched, yet eminently readable, Jacobsen writes history with the pacing and character development of a suspense thriller. You won't soon forget the people or the places described in this book (which is the key to compelling history). The subtitle, "An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency" lives up to the reader's expectations. The truth is, no author has ever tackled DARPA quite like this. Building from research in her previous books as well as her past careers as an LA Times Magazine historical reporter and a PJMedia investigative reporter, Jacobsen covers what is for her familiar ground. She follows it up with impeccable research and then brings together all the seemingly disjointed pieces into a cognitive whole. The effect is a book that is as thorough as it is fascinating. Will better books about DARPA be written in the future? Undoubtedly, but only because future journalists will have Jacobsen to thank for showing them the way. Jacobsen writes with the puritan objectivity that sometimes gets her in trouble with readers and subjects that have strong biases but it works well in this book. Some readers may disagree with some of her conclusions (her battle of Mogadishu assessment misses the mark). But it's nearly impossible for an outsider to thoroughly capture all of the right stuff when researching classified history. And she closes the book with her signature personal appearance in the last chapter. Because after all, good writers not only write history, they sometimes become a part of it. Highly recommended. Especially for those interested in Cold War history, intelligence operations, technology, US government secret programs, government conspiracy, futurism, research and development, military affairs, and scientific innovations. Read this book.
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