A HIGHER FORM OF KILLING: The Secret Story of Gas and Germ Warfare [Import] [Hardcover]

Robert and Paxman, Jeremy Harris (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Chatto & Windus; 1st.ed. edition (1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0701125853
• ISBN-13: 978-0701125851
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,769,072 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Harris is the author of Pompeii, Enigma, and Fatherland. He has been a television correspondent with the BBC and a newspaper columnist for the London Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph. His novels have sold more than ten million copies and been translated into thirty languages. He lives in Berkshire, England, with his wife and four children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Higher Form of Killing, August 16, 2006

By 

M. N. Lowe - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret History of Chemical and Biological Warfare (Paperback)

Terrorism thrives on fear and imagination in designing weapons of mass destruction to inflict the most damage and death. Massive planes flown into prominent symbols of American pride, bomb-laden trucks exploding in front of U.S. embassies or Marine Corps barracks, explosive charges on a small boat rammed into a United States warship, these are the events that come to mind when one envisions terrorist attacks. Chemical and biological warfare seem an improbable choice for terrorists to use due to inability to procure materials or test for reliability. Or is it?

A Higher Form of Killing offers another area for terror to grasp hold. Dubbed the "The best account of gas and germ warfare available" by the Washington Post, A Higher Form of Killing presents the history of chemical and biological warfare through several first hand accounts as well as declassified documents that grimly describe its effects. Concentrating primarily on the UK-U.S. relationship developed out of World War One continuing through to today, authors Harris and Paxman shed light on several bio/chem warfare programs developed including releasing "inert" gases over populous cities to see how far the gases would penetrate, full blown experiments using live germs and gases over deserted islands, CIA experiments using prostitutes who administered bio drugs into unsuspecting clients and many more. With several research facilities conducting experiments throughout the western world, germ and gas warfare is a mature industry capable of producing and delivering a crippling blow if employed in a devilish manner.

A Higher Form of Killing is a must read for anyone wishing to learn more about the history of bio/chem warfare and for those who dare dream of its future if these deadly weapons were possessed by terrorists; however, it is NOT recommended for those with a weak stomach (graphic descriptions and pictures of physical effects from weapons in this book).

A Higher Form of Killing was written in 1981 and thus is a bit outdated; however a revised edition was released in 2002 (still outdated).

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, but dated information, April 3, 2003

By 

"alaninsa" (San Antonio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret History of Chemical and Biological Warfare (Paperback)

This is an outstanding book that outlines the history of chemical warfare through the 1980s. It's an outstanding text and one that was in everyone's personal library when I was a student at the Army Chemical School.

Buy it and understand the storied past of our most frightful weapons.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome but scary book, July 14, 2008

By 

Bebe Deimos (AZ, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret History of Chemical and Biological Warfare (Paperback)

The book was written before the events of 9/11, however the topics are even more poignant today then they were when it was originally written.

Not too technical a read and this book exposes a lot of valuable information about the (expected) double-speak of governments regarding secret research projects.

This book is a definite read for anyone interested in the history or possible future of biological and chemical weapons.