The Bomber Mafia : a dream, a temptation, and the longest night of the second World War
Record details
- ISBN: 9780316309851
- ISBN: 0316309850
- Physical Description: xvi, 303 pages (large print), 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 21 cm
- Edition: [Large print edition].
- Publisher: New York : Little Brown & Co., 2021.
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-301). |
Formatted Contents Note: | "This isn't working. You're out." -- Part one: The dream -- "Mr. Norden was content to pass his time in the shop." -- "We make progress unhindered by custom." -- "He was lacking in the bond of human sympathy. " -- "The truest of the true believers." -- "General Hansell was aghast." -- Part two: The temptation -- "It would be suicide, boys, suicide." -- "If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." -- "It's all ashes-all that and that and that." -- "Improvised destruction." -- "All of a sudden, the Air House would be gone. Poof." |
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Genre: | Large type books. Annals and chronicles. History. |
Other Formats and Editions
Show Only Available Copies
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Homer Public Library | LP 940.54 GLA (Text) | 000161070 | Large Print -- Nonfiction | Available | - |
The Bomber Mafia : A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War
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Summary
The Bomber Mafia : A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War
Dive into this "truly compelling" ( Good Morning America ) New York Times bestseller that explores how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war--from the creator and host of the podcast Revisionist History. In The Bomber Mafia , Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists, the "Bomber Mafia," asked: What if precision bombing could cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal? In contrast, the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in Japan cost thousands of civilian lives, but may have spared even more by averting a planned US invasion. In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell asks, "Was it worth it?" Things might have gone differently had LeMay's predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge. Hansell believed in precision bombing, but when he and Curtis LeMay squared off for a leadership handover in the jungles of Guam, LeMay emerged victorious, leading to the darkest night of World War II. The Bomber Mafia is a riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war.