000 02417cam a22002417i 4500
020 _a9780316296618
020 _a0316296619
082 0 4 _a940.544973
_bGLA
100 1 _aGladwell, Malcolm,
245 1 4 _aThe Bomber Mafia :
_bA Dream, A Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War /
_cMalcolm Gladwell.
250 _aFirst edition.
260 _aUK,
_bPenguin Books,
_c2022.
300 _axiv, 240 pages :
_billustrations ;
_c21 cm
520 _a"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 had a different view. This 'Bomber Mafia' asked: What if precision bombing could, just by taking out critical choke points -- industrial or transportation hubs -- cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal? In his podcast, Revisionist History, Gladwell re-examines moments from the past and asks whether we got it right the first time. In The Bomber Mafia, he steps back from the bombing of Tokyo, the deadliest night of the war, and asks, "Was it worth it?" The attack 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 more by averting a planned US invasion. Things might have gone differently had LeMay's predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge. As a key member of the Bomber Mafia, Haywood's theories of precision bombing had been foiled by bad weather, enemy jet fighters, and human error. 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." --
650 0 _aWorld War, 1939-1945
_xAerial operations.
650 0 _aWorld War, 1939-1945
_zJapan
_xAerial operations.
650 0 _aBombing, Aerial
_zJapan
_xHistory
650 0 _aAeronautics, Military
_xHistory.
650 0 _aPrecision bombing
_xHistory.
650 7 _aBombing, Aerial.
650 7 _aMilitary operations, Aerial
_xAmerican.
942 _cBK
999 _c16135
_d16135