The Invention That Changed the World: How a Small Group of Radar Pioneers Won the Second World War and Launched a Technological Revolution (Sloan Technology Series) [Hardcover]

Robert Buderi (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sloan Technology Series | Publication Date: October 9, 1996

The technology that was created to win World War II (radar) has revolutionized the modern world. This is the story of the inventors and their inventions. Photos. Line drawings.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Without the invention of radar, Europe--and possibly even the world--might today be under Fascist rule. This well-written, technically accurate, and even exciting account captures the urgency of the race to win World War II, the people behind the magnetrons, screens and antennae, and the use of radar in the cold war. Another extraordinary volume from the Sloan Foundation Technology Series, and Highly Recommended.

From Publishers Weekly

As the former technology editor for Business Week, Buderi understands his complex subject well enough to render it clear without oversimplifying it. The first half of his book makes a strong case that the atomic bomb only ended WWII?it was radar that won it. Radar tipped the balance in the Battle of Britain, at Midway and in the Solomons. Radar haunted the U-boats and helped control the V-1 attacks of 1944-45. Meanwhile, radar countermeasures and navigation systems set the stage for the D-Day landings. Buderi tells this story well, with an unusual ability to describe technical subjects in language a nonspecialist can comprehend. In the second half of the book, he devotes half a dozen chapters to biographical sketches of key, albeit little-known, participants in the wartime radar program. Finally, the author brings to center stage radar technology's contributions to the Cold War and to space astronomy. While this concluding discussion is informative, it scants other areas influenced by radar. Subjects such as air-traffic control and weather reporting deserve better than relegation to an epilogue. Overall, this is a vigorous history, but an unfocused one. Photos, not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1St Edition edition (October 9, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684810212
• ISBN-13: 978-0684810218
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,121,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Really Two Books - The First Great, The Second Lacking, December 4, 2000

By 

Fred "Technology is your friend." (CHAPEL HILL, NC, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The INVENTION THAT CHANGED THE WORLD: HOW A SMALL GROUP OF RADAR PIONEERS WON THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND LAUNCHED A TECH (Paperback)

This book is really two books in one, the first being an outline of the development of radar immediately prior to and during World War II. This part takes up the first 245 pages of the book, is extremely well organized and plays out the complete development and deployment of radar during World War II. This early part takes you through the people and organizations that were behind radar's development, as well as a very top level view of the technology used to create the device. The author walks you through a very good description of radar's development on a global scale, outlining how the US and UK led the development, why Germany was only slightly further behind, and why Japan was so lagging. Mr. Buderi takes several major battles, including the Battle of Britain, the Battle of the Bulge and the Battle of Midway, and outlines the significance of radar in those battles and how it truly was the winning weapon of the war. This part of the book clearly rates 5 stars, and makes the whole text worth purchasing.

The second part of the book, which takes up the final 233 pages, is less organized and much less linear in its thought development. While this lack of organization does reflect the decentralization of radar development following WWII, it does not make this section any easier to read. While the development or radar as an astronomical tool, its deployment and adoption at civilian airports and the use of its underlying technologies in the development of integrated circuit are all significant, their depiction as essential parts of the story is lacking. The second part ranks 2 stars, and is good reference material, but should be read on a chapter by chapter basis, as that appears to be how they were written.

In summary, the first part is great - 5 stars, the second part was less a book, but more a stringing together of engineering stories and earned only 2 stars. I gave it a weighted average of 4.

Favorite Excerpts:

"I never read books - they interfere with thinking." - Paul Dirac to Robert Oppenheimer (page 48)

"It didn't make me more enemies than I cared about, because the enemies that you have to worry about are smart enemies, and smart people didn't get mad at me unless they had a good reason to." - George Valley Jr. (page 183)

"Some of my friends seemed to know every year model of every car, that seemed to me so temporary and uninteresting. Nature is such a permanent aspect of our universe, and so obviously God-made." -Charles Townes (page 336)

"We had the authority and influence that came from being indispensable." - Jay Forrester (page 397)

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was There!, October 16, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Near Santa Rosa, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The INVENTION THAT CHANGED THE WORLD: HOW A SMALL GROUP OF RADAR PIONEERS WON THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND LAUNCHED A TECH (Paperback)

After all these years (1942-1998) I see at last an account of the work we did at Sydney University Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Radiophysics Lab! I was a Navy 2nd Class Radarman assigned to develop electronic countermeasures items (electronic warfare). This book tells it like it was! It rang so true to me that I was carried back once again to my three years on that assignment under Gen Douglas MacArthur, as a member of the ECM group. If you want to know what we did, and many others around the world in this super-secret assignment, Buderi has captured it beautifully. No one person or group "won" the war, but the part played by those involved in radar most certainly changed its course toward the eventual outcome so little appreciated today. [e-mail]

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for prospective engineers, November 30, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Invention That Changed the World: How a Small Group of Radar Pioneers Won the Second World War and Launched a Technological Revolution (Sloan Technology Series) (Hardcover)

A superb piece of work. Anyone contemplating a career in physics or engineering should read this book. If Buderi's descriptions of the technical chase don't thrill and inspire you, strongly consider directing your efforts elsewhere.