From there, exploration into what other types of military and defence advancements could be done became the task of the day. As Jacobsen explains in the opening chapter of the book, secret tests for a new hydrogen bomb took place soon after the Second World War and the results were astronomical.

The need to be technologically advanced became essential for the US Government with the onset of the Cold War. Readers who enjoy this type of analysis will surely want to take detailed notes as they make their way through this book. Jacobsen uses her exceptional research and writing abilities to provide the reader with a sensational look well behind the curtain and into the secrets the US Government has been using to further its stronghold around the world. As author Annie Jacobsen posits, some of the technology is used by the US military two decades before it becomes public knowledge, leaving me to wonder what’s being worked on now. These are the technological inventions the US Department of Defence use to further their abilities on the world scene. I'm super disappointed, because this book was extremely interesting before I lost faith in its accuracy.įar away from anything the general public understands, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) lurks.

The problem with a book like this is that the subject matter is difficult for a layperson to fact-check, and when fairly simple concepts aren't correct, it doesn't bode well for the recently declassified material. When I got to the part where the author completely mangles Moore's Law (instead of saying computing power doubles every 18 months, she was saying it squares), I was done. After that, though, my skeptic senses were perked for more inconsistencies. I am generous, however, and understand that misspellings can make it through even the best of editorial processes. First of all, she refers to a bombsight as a 'bombsite.' Bombsite doesn't even appear to be a word, and was my first clue that this book may not have been properly edited or fact-checked.

Unfortunately, as I got deeper into the book, I started to see some errors with concepts I was quite familiar with already. The author had some opinions or drew some conclusions that I was slightly skeptical of, but they were fairly clearly labeled as opinions, so that was fine with me. The material was interesting and seemed well researched. For the first 150 pages, I was completely hooked.

The Pentagon's Brain by Annie Jacobsen