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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Hambling surveys technologies developed by military research that ultimately found civilian applications, tracing this war/peace crossover effect from World War II to the present. A British defense journalist, Hambling keeps the data about particular weapons to a level manageable by general readers, who will learn the physical principles of a weapon, and its route into the civilian world. Aerospace technology is the preeminent WWII spin-off and, for better or worse, traceable to Nazi-sponsored research. Hambling's coverage of the German jets and rockets emphasizes their teething problems and military effectiveness. Occasionally widening his commentary to analyze the worth of huge expenditures on military research, Hambling also lightens matters with jaunts into common items (microwave ovens, cell phones, T-shirts, sunglasses) seeded by the global conflict. Although Hambling hesitates to predict what contemporary military R & D will reap for future consumers, he does probe the perimeter of this mostly secret research on items that sound like something out of science fiction, such as vortex rings and pulsed energy weapons. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Product Description
David Hambling tells the fascinating story of human ingenuity and the complex world it has created—a world at once safer and yet more perilous than ever. Throughout history, war and the threat of war have driven innovation and accelerated the uptake of new technology—from the nomadic warriors who introduced the stirrup and the kebab to the world, to the British Navy’s funding of Marconi’s newfangled radio. Since 1945 the relationship between military needs and modern business has grown ever closer, especially in the United States.
Hambling surveys technologies developed by military research that ultimately found civilian applications, tracing this war/peace crossover effect from World War II to the present. A British defense journalist, Hambling keeps the data about particular weapons to a level manageable by general readers, who will learn the physical principles of a weapon, and its route into the civilian world. Aerospace technology is the preeminent WWII spin-off and, for better or worse, traceable to Nazi-sponsored research. Hambling's coverage of the German jets and rockets emphasizes their teething problems and military effectiveness. Occasionally widening his commentary to analyze the worth of huge expenditures on military research, Hambling also lightens matters with jaunts into common items (microwave ovens, cell phones, T-shirts, sunglasses) seeded by the global conflict. Although Hambling hesitates to predict what contemporary military R & D will reap for future consumers, he does probe the perimeter of this mostly secret research on items that sound like something out of science fiction, such as vortex rings and pulsed energy weapons. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Product Description
David Hambling tells the fascinating story of human ingenuity and the complex world it has created—a world at once safer and yet more perilous than ever. Throughout history, war and the threat of war have driven innovation and accelerated the uptake of new technology—from the nomadic warriors who introduced the stirrup and the kebab to the world, to the British Navy’s funding of Marconi’s newfangled radio. Since 1945 the relationship between military needs and modern business has grown ever closer, especially in the United States.
With the skills of a master storyteller, Hambling traces the history of this relationship in the modern era and shows how precision eye surgery emerged out of the military quest for a "death ray," how transistors and silicon chips initially helped build better bombs, and exactly why the 747 has such a distinctive shape. Hambling explores the current cutting edge of modern military research as he seeks to identify the technologies that will transform our lives in the decades to come. If history does repeat itself, Weapons Grade is much more than the story of how we got to where we are; it is the story of where we are going, for better or worse.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Every day, without realizing it, we use military technology. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
solar aircraft, rocket belt, baton rounds, grey goo, vortex rings, black aircraft, unmanned aircraft, space tourism, smart dust, pulse jet, personal flight, nuclear aircraft Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Second World War, First World War, Cold War, Difference Engine, Soviet Union, New York, Department of Defense, Groom Lake, Special Forces, Global Hawk, Atomic Energy Commission, Fat Man, Gulf War, Manhattan Project, Bletchley Park, Bob Lazar, Joe Smith, Little Boy, New Mexico, North Korea, President Eisenhower, Scaled Composites, Alan Turing, British Empire, Edward Teller New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Every day, without realizing it, we use military technology. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
solar aircraft, rocket belt, baton rounds, grey goo, vortex rings, black aircraft, unmanned aircraft, space tourism, smart dust, pulse jet, personal flight, nuclear aircraft Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Second World War, First World War, Cold War, Difference Engine, Soviet Union, New York, Department of Defense, Groom Lake, Special Forces, Global Hawk, Atomic Energy Commission, Fat Man, Gulf War, Manhattan Project, Bletchley Park, Bob Lazar, Joe Smith, Little Boy, New Mexico, North Korea, President Eisenhower, Scaled Composites, Alan Turing, British Empire, Edward Teller New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 41
books:
See all 41 books this book cites
- Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed by Ben R. Rich in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology by Eric Drexler on page 362, and Back Matter
- The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells on page 106
- The Nautical Almanac by Nautical Almanac Office on page 90
- Hunt for Zero Point by Nick Cook on page 195
See all 41 books this book cites
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