Dennis D. McDonald (ddmcd@ddmcd.com)consults from Alexandria Virginia. His services include writing & research, proposal development, and project management.
I can’t help but wonder when reading about these exciting times what it might have been like had the U.S. and Soviet Union cooperated in space exploration earlier on. Would the combined resources have resulted in greater joint accomplishments like a moon base or a landing on Mars? Or was the competition and secrecy effective in pushing both sides ahead?
This book is the perfect antidote for anyone who seriously believes that politics back then was any different from today. Lincoln faced incredible dissension and disagreement within his own party and his own cabinet. This makes Gates’ recent revelations about his relationship with the Obama Administration pale by comparison.
I’m especially fond of history books that not only explain events but help the reader understand the people involved and how they and events were impacted by history, culture, personal relationships, and where appropriate, by technology
But mysteriously there’s enough recognizable and even semi-linear as narrative here to keep a halfway intelligent or imaginative person interested all the way through.
I’ve always been fascinated by “big science” projects and how they were managed. Often there’s a confluence of private and public sector, academia, and military; the nuclear arms race as presented here is certainly not an exception.
This book describes what it was like to bomb Japanese cities via B-29 raids conducted by the U.S. during 1944 and 1945. Most of the action is from the American perspective and takes place on the air-base islands off Japan from which most raids were launched (chiefly Tinian and Saipan), in the air while over water, or over Japan itself
I read a lot of history books where you get caught up in the sweep of big ideas, big movements, and larger-than-life historical figures. In THUNDER BELOW we have a captain, his crew, and the ship, doing their job while trying to stay alive. It’s a keeper.
If you’re interested in history and how languages evolve, this book is for you. Bragg treats English like an evolving organism that absorbs and transforms itself as it grows.
The scale and scope of the operation are huge. Hundreds of crew are sent in deep sleep while a smaller “first shift” prepares the massive ball of ancient ice for human habitation. The authors think through the physics and the logistics of such a massive operation and make you believe — almost — that something like this might really work.
Having always been a fan of aerospace history this book is one of the first I’ve read that actually attempts to answer in some depth the question, “What was it like to be part of the Apollo program?” We hear from the different participants from astronaut on down. It’s highly educational and even surprising in parts.
You have to be interested in engineering and technology to appreciate this book and its detail. So many aircraft books emphasize operational or military applications while skimping on the details that allow an appreciation of the huge number of challenges involved in aircraft development. This one really delivers the goods.
Forester’s message is pretty transparent, though: high class are low, educated or not, smalltown or urban, young or old — all have parts to play in the well oiled war machine that cares less about class than about performance.
Blackett’s War is an uneven but very interesting account of how basic science and engineering techniques, now called “operations research” or “operational research,” were applied to solving military problems during World War II.
Mallick’s book is a tour of post-WWII 20th-century US aviation like none other I’ve ever read. Here’s a pilot who has flown Cessnas, early jets, helicopters, the doomed XB-70, lifting bodies, lunar landing training platforms, the B-52, and the YF12 Blackbird, all on behalf of NASA or its predecessor NACA.
This short story looks at the events leading up to the bombing of Hiroshima from the perspective of a young Japanese intelligence officer who pieces together evidence of what’s coming. Unfortunately, no one’s believes him.
This book is a nuts and bolts — and almost minute to minute — description of what an SR 71 Blackbird pilot did before, during, and after secret intelligence gathering flights.