The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency
This Pulitzer Prize finalist provides 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.
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Chapters
THE COLD WAR
Chapter One: The Evil Thing
Chapter Two: War Games and Computing Machines
Chapter Three: Vast Weapons Systems of the Future
Chapter Four: Emergency Plans
Chapter Five: Sixteen Hundred Seconds Until Doomsday
Chapter Six: Psychological Operations
THE VIETNAM WAR
Chapter Seven: Techniques and Gadgets
Chapter Eight: RAND and COIN
Chapter Nine: Command and Control
Chapter Ten: Motivation and Morale
Chapter Eleven: The Jasons Enter Vietnam
Chapter Twelve: The Electronic Fence
Chapter Thirteen: The End of Vietnam
OPERATIONS OTHER THAN WAR
Chapter Fourteen: Rise of the Machines
Chapter Fifteen: Star Wars and Tank Wars
Chapter Sixteen: The Gulf War and Operations
Other Than War
Chapter Seventeen: Biological Weapons
Chapter Eighteen: Transforming Humans for War
PART IV
THE WAR ON TERROR
Chapter Nineteen: Terror Strikes
Chapter Twenty: Total Information Awareness
Chapter Twenty-One: IED War
Chapter Twenty-Iwo: Combat Zones That See
Chapter Twenty-Three: Human Terrain
PART V
FUTURE WAR
Chapter Twenty-Four: Drone Wars
Chapter Twenty-Five: Brain Wars
Chapter Twenty-Six: The Pentagon’s Brain
Review
I listen to all audiobooks by Annie Jacobsen as they are that good. This is one of the best writers alive. Her topics of choice are always focused on US government and various agencies and special military units. So this is perfect for guys. This book though feels a bit lost in interviews and lack of structure. When jacobsen writes about CIA and various secret alternative science projects it all makes sense storywise with plenty of details and clear storylines we already know about. And her various interviews and statements from people fit into that outline. At other times the interviews take over and deep dive into fully conspiracy territory with no proof or become too focused on personal suffering and lived experience. But she remains critical and focused and never lets silly people take over her points and stories. So overall it works when it's storylines you already know from the news.
Here the book focuses a bit too much on interviews and vague historical science projects with too few actual outcomes. It's hard to fully focus on the story as to me DARPA even now feels like a vague and secret organization. Maybe it's an issue that I didn't know anything about DARPA beforehand so any claim or story doesn't really make much sense to me as a visual learner. Which is shame. I guess I will watch a few documentaries and movies about it and then relisten to the book when I have time. The book is so unstructured that to me it didn't really deliver on a top level even though I for sure enjoy the topic.
It's still a great book with plenty of engaging storylines if you are willing to fully focus on it and try to create a structure in your head while you read it as it won't do it for you. As I said the DARPA storylines are disjoined and the organization is dry with not many great storylines. I think it was a bit too much for me. Too deep a dive into a topic no one knows much about. But I will read everything she writes and reread it too.
THE COLD WAR
Chapter One: The Evil Thing
Chapter Two: War Games and Computing Machines
Chapter Three: Vast Weapons Systems of the Future
Chapter Four: Emergency Plans
Chapter Five: Sixteen Hundred Seconds Until Doomsday
Chapter Six: Psychological Operations
THE VIETNAM WAR
Chapter Seven: Techniques and Gadgets
Chapter Eight: RAND and COIN
Chapter Nine: Command and Control
Chapter Ten: Motivation and Morale
Chapter Eleven: The Jasons Enter Vietnam
Chapter Twelve: The Electronic Fence
Chapter Thirteen: The End of Vietnam
OPERATIONS OTHER THAN WAR
Chapter Fourteen: Rise of the Machines
Chapter Fifteen: Star Wars and Tank Wars
Chapter Sixteen: The Gulf War and Operations
Other Than War
Chapter Seventeen: Biological Weapons
Chapter Eighteen: Transforming Humans for War
PART IV
THE WAR ON TERROR
Chapter Nineteen: Terror Strikes
Chapter Twenty: Total Information Awareness
Chapter Twenty-One: IED War
Chapter Twenty-Iwo: Combat Zones That See
Chapter Twenty-Three: Human Terrain
PART V
FUTURE WAR
Chapter Twenty-Four: Drone Wars
Chapter Twenty-Five: Brain Wars
Chapter Twenty-Six: The Pentagon’s Brain
Review
I listen to all audiobooks by Annie Jacobsen as they are that good. This is one of the best writers alive. Her topics of choice are always focused on US government and various agencies and special military units. So this is perfect for guys. This book though feels a bit lost in interviews and lack of structure. When jacobsen writes about CIA and various secret alternative science projects it all makes sense storywise with plenty of details and clear storylines we already know about. And her various interviews and statements from people fit into that outline. At other times the interviews take over and deep dive into fully conspiracy territory with no proof or become too focused on personal suffering and lived experience. But she remains critical and focused and never lets silly people take over her points and stories. So overall it works when it's storylines you already know from the news.
Here the book focuses a bit too much on interviews and vague historical science projects with too few actual outcomes. It's hard to fully focus on the story as to me DARPA even now feels like a vague and secret organization. Maybe it's an issue that I didn't know anything about DARPA beforehand so any claim or story doesn't really make much sense to me as a visual learner. Which is shame. I guess I will watch a few documentaries and movies about it and then relisten to the book when I have time. The book is so unstructured that to me it didn't really deliver on a top level even though I for sure enjoy the topic.
It's still a great book with plenty of engaging storylines if you are willing to fully focus on it and try to create a structure in your head while you read it as it won't do it for you. As I said the DARPA storylines are disjoined and the organization is dry with not many great storylines. I think it was a bit too much for me. Too deep a dive into a topic no one knows much about. But I will read everything she writes and reread it too.
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