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The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency Hardcover – September 22, 2015

by Annie Jacobsen (Author)

4.5 1,655 ratings

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A Pulitzer Prize Finalist and the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, from the author of the New York Times bestseller Area 51.

No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain," from its Cold War inception in 1958 to the present.

This is the book on DARPA -- a compelling narrative about this clandestine intersection of science and the American military and the often frightening results.

Print length

560 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Little, Brown and Company
Publication date

September 22, 2015
Dimensions

6.25 x 1.75 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

0316371769
ISBN-13

978-0316371766
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of September 2015: If you’re searching for an obtuse, synapse-dulling book on DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and its mission to create breakthrough military technologies, look elsewhere. Jacobsen’s nimble account of the ultra-secret R&D arm of the Defense Department engagingly details the shrouded history of the organization, starting with its genesis during the nuclear arms race and covering its efforts up through today. In her final section, Jacobsen offers solid but chilling conjectures on what covert programs DARPA is focused on now. Jacobsen (a journalist and the author of Operation Paperclip and Area 51) strikes a balance between lauding the technology leaps driven by DARPA and pointing out that the ultimate goal is to create wartime tools to guarantee U.S. dominance. DARPA’s successes include lighter machine guns (developed for slighter-bodied soldiers during the Vietnamese war and now standard U.S. issue), the Internet, GPS, and drones. Says Jacobsen, “DARPA creates, DARPA dominates, and when sent to the battlefield, DARPA destroys.” But, Jacobsen also asks, “what if some of these ‘dramatic new capabilities’ are not such a great idea?”

Hawks will find plenty of meat in here to fuel their arguments for the value of top-secret U.S. military programs. At the same time, doves will be well bolstered to pose uncomfortable questions about the worthiness of such activities in a free country. Thoughtful and nuanced, The Pentagon’s Brain will ask you to use your brain as well.--Adrian Liang

Review

Pulitzer Prize Finalist in History

One of The Washington Post's Notable Nonfiction Books of 2015

One of The Boston Globe's Best Books of 2015

One of Amazon's Top 100 Books of 2015

"A brilliantly researched account of a small but powerful secret government agency whose military research profoundly affects world affairs."―The Pulitzer Prize Committee

"Filled with the intrigue and high stakes of a spy novel, Jacobsen's history of DARPA is as much a fascinating testament to human ingenuity as it is a paean to endless industrial warfare and the bureaucracy of the military-industrial complex."―Kirkus Reviews

"A fascinating and unsettling portrait of the secretive U.S. government agency....Jacobsen walks a fine line in telling the story of the agency and its innovations without coming across as a cheerleader or a critic, or letting the narrative devolve into a salacious tell-all. Jacobsen's ability to objectively tell the story of DARPA, not to mention its murky past, is truly remarkable, making for a terrifically well-crafted treatise on the agency most Americans know next to nothing about."
―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Jacobsen offers a definitive history of the clandestine agency.... She explores the implications of DARPA work on technology that will not be widely known to the public for generations but will certainly impact national security and concepts of war."―Vanessa Bush, Booklist (starred review)

"Jacobsen's account will serve as the model for histories of military research and development and is likely to lead to more works and articles about DARPA.... Engrossing, conversation-starting read..."―Library Journal

"Annie Jacobsen's considerable talents as an investigative journalist prove indispensable in uncovering the remarkable history of one of America's most powerful and clandestine military research agencies. And she is a great storyteller, making the tantalizing tale of The Pentagon's Brain -- from the depths of the Cold War to present day -- come alive on every page."―Gerald Posner, author of God's Bankers

"A fascinating and sometimes uneasy exploration of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency...."―Dina Temple-Raston, The Washington Post

"In this fascinating and terrifying account, Annie Jacobsen regales us with the stories behind the agency's 'consequential and sometimes Orwellian' innovations, including autonomous weapons systems--killer robots that could decide, without human intervention, who lives and who dies."―Bryan Schatz, Mother Jones

"Annie Jacobsen has a gift for unearthing secret, long-buried information."―Mary Ann Gwinn, Seattle Times

"An exciting read that asks an important question: what is the risk of allowing lethal technologies to be developed in secret?"―Ann Finkbeiner, Nature

"The Pentagon's Brain puts Jacobsen in the company of important writers ... such as Shane Harris and Rajiv Chandrasekran."―Chris Bray, Bookforum

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown and Company; First Edition (September 22, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 560 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316371769
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316371766
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.86 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.75 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #724,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #78 in Biological & Chemical Warfare History (Books)
- #1,368 in Vietnam War History (Books)
- #1,441 in Military Strategy History (Books)

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4.5 1,655 ratings

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Annie Jacobsen

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ANNIE JACOBSEN is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestselling author. Her books include: AREA 51; OPERATION PAPERCLIP; THE PENTAGON’S BRAIN; PHENOMENA; SURPRISE, KILL VANISH; and FIRST PLATOON.

Her newest book is NUCLEAR WAR: A SCENARIO.

Jacobsen’s books have been named Best of the Year and Most Anticipated by outlets including The Washington Post, USA Today, The Boston Globe, Vanity Fair, Apple, and Amazon. She has appears regularly on TV programs and media platforms—from PBS Newshour to Joe Rogan—discussing war, weapons, government secrecy, and national security.

She also writes and produces TV, including Tom Clancy’s JACK RYAN. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband Kevin and their two sons.

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Caleb Vogt

Extremely well researched book. However, bees don't purr!

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2024

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Glad I read this book. The curtain dividing the public from the military is orders of magnitude greater than the divide between the public and academia.

There is one anecdote in the book about bees which were trained through pavlovian conditioning to identify explosives. Anne states that the behavior the bees performed to indicate detection of an explosive was that the bees would "purr". What Anne is almost certainly referring to is what bee and drosophila scientists call the PER, or the proboscis extension reflex. When we say it, we typically will say "per", so I expect this is the root of this humorous oversight. Anyway, in conclusions, bees can not in fact "purr".

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Saar

Lots of very interesting history

Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2024

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Very interesting read about DARPA/ Arpa history - a goldmine of information, much of it from 1st person interviews. Only 4 stars because sometimes it bounces too much between subjects, and at times there is a conspiratorial undertone when discussing “possible” programs that are still classified.

Area 51 is also a great book by this author

2 people found this helpful

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Hunter Johnston

Fascinating

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2023

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Annie Jacobsen does a masterful job of informing on the history of DARPA and the progression of researching weapons/programs to benefit the US Military Industrial Complex.

Some of it, I was aware of. However, there were many other things that were a revelation. If you are a fan of military history and/or scientific research, this is a must-read for you.

Highly recommend.

7 people found this helpful

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Peter A. Kirby

No other single book even comes close

Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2016

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Annie Jacobsen just keeps filling the voids. Why doesn't the lamestream media report about what DARPA is doing every night on the evening news? What DARPA does is news. What President Obama and most of our so-called leaders do is a bunch of canned garbage built to deceive. In "The Pentagon's Brain," as in her other books, Jacobsen once again fills the vacuum left by the presstitute media.

The author starts with the origins of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and then goes through the decades highlighting different technologies developed by DARPA. The book ends with a chapter showing us what types of technologies are currently in development.

There is no other single book that even comes close to telling DARPA's continuing story. It seems a sad commentary on the state of our society that it would take this long for a significant encapsulation of this very important organization's history. But, the silver lining is that it is here now. We are now afforded a good understanding of a very important organization heretofore largely ignored by the geniuses at ABC, NBC, CNN, CBS, and the rest.

8 people found this helpful

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Fractured Jaw

Excellent, yet frightening

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2021

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In many ways, this book is not for the faint of heart. This history of DARPA, or what can be revealed, is the history of modern warfare. It is not pretty, nor is it moral. It's about making better killing machines and how much human thought or emotion goes into them. But this history needs to be known so we can better prepare for our immediate future as war has not ceased. The research here can only go so far, what with the wall of secrecy around it, but what's on display in these pages is fascinating. This book will leave you with many questions about America's history and its future, but these are subjects worth contemplating as this book does an excellent job of revealing a story rarely touched upon despite being 60+ years in the making.

11 people found this helpful

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T. Koger

Some interesting history but lacking scientific and technical credibility

Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2015

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I'm familiar with a few of the technologies discussed in this book as well as some of the history the author tries to present. Simply put, the author gets most of it wrong. The big problem I have here is the author's consistent misunderstanding and frequent misrepresentation of the science and technologies discussed in the book. In many cases, Annie draws completely erroneous conclusions from DARPA research topic titles where the actual substance of the topic is classified. Did it ever occur to her that these DARPA research titles are sanitized to prevent folks like her from understanding what they are really about? Some of her conclusions actually made me laugh. In other cases where more information was available, she either deliberately tries to mislead her readers or is just too lazy to educate herself regarding the technologies she's discussing. Maybe she just doesn't appreciate what she doesn't and can't know.

To be fair, there were some interesting and credibly researched bits of history in this book and you may find these tidbits entertaining. Just recognize that she really doesn't know what she's talking when it comes to science and technology.

38 people found this helpful

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POPOGIGIO

Great read

Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2023

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A very well researched book on DARPA, as the reader will see the by-products that are sort of common place today. Surprised that the author did not go into the newer agency called IARPA and AI research.

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2021

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Excellent book and she reports some scary things. The last part of the book deals with development of AI, human cyborgs and advance machine intelligence. She talks about the threat autonomous "robots" could pose to mankind. Pretty much all of her concerns about this topic are in the Isaac Asimov Robot Series from the 1940's and 50's. While she doesn't acknowledge Asimov, "everything old is new again".
She has done some great work nonetheless. For the conspiracy minded, this is a great read and strongly suggests why the country is going the way it currently is.

3 people found this helpful

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mholyome

Very interesting read.

Reviewed in Canada on July 6, 2019

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I love Annie Jacobsen's writing style it's very easy to read, entertaining and educational too. I have a couple of her books and plan to pick up more.

One person found this helpful

Kindle-Kunde

Essential reading.

Reviewed in Germany on May 1, 2020

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This book is one of the most frightening I have ever read. For example in 2015 Darpa requested about 150 million dollars to develop an app that will enable Doctors to data mine information about patients movements and so forth. Now with Corona a similar app is certainly here in Germany being discussed for everyone to be required to have.
She also discusses AI, Killer Robots, total surveillance, cloning and enhanced superhuman soldiers.
The questions book asks is do we the civilian population really have control over Defence research when we don't know what it is, and could the day come when the military complex loses control over the technology it is developing.

Fernald

知る人ぞ知るDARPAのドキュメンタリー

Reviewed in Japan on August 27, 2017

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本書で扱われているDARPAは、米国防省の機関としてはNSAなどと比べると知名度が低く、DARPAに関する著作もこれまで見たことが無かったのだが、DARPAは、コンピュータ、衛星、インターネット、ドローン、GPS、そしてAIといった、今や我々の生活には欠かせないものとなったハイテクを生み出した機関として、知る人ぞ知る機関なのである。本書の存在を知るや否や、原書を注文して読んだ。

筆者は、機密解除された公文書や関係者へのインタビューを駆使し、第二次世界大戦中にまで遡ってDARPAのルーツを探り、現在に至るDARPAの歴史を描いている。情報機関同様、DARPAも機密の塊であり、本書で扱われているのはほぼ公然情報であり、スクープ的な情報はほとんど無かったように思われるが、DARPAの歴史をこれほど体系的に描いた書物はおそらく前例がなく、極めて価値がある書物だと思う。

現在、わが国では、防衛装備庁から大学等の研究機関への資金提供が批判に曝されているが、ベトナム戦争中に枯葉剤の開発に関与したDARPAも同様に大学への資金提供を世間から叩かれ、デモまで起こっていたということである。ただ、米国でこのようなことが起こったのは４０年以上も前のことであり、日本は４０年以上も前の米国の水準にようやく足を踏み入れようとしているに過ぎないのではないか。また、DARPAにはノーベル賞受賞者を始めとする超一流の科学者が協力しているが、防衛装備庁にこのようなレベルの科学者が協力しているという話は聞いたことが無い。日米間の力の差を感じさせられる。

日本の科学技術の優位が揺らいでいると言われているが、防衛装備庁からの資金提供は、日本の科学技術と我が国の防衛に何をもたらすのか。非常に大部の書物であるが、まとまりがなく、筆者の主張が明らかにされていないといった難点もあるが、日本の将来を考える上でも大きな示唆を与えてくれる良書である。

2 people found this helpful

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coached88

Great

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 15, 2016

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There is a lot of detail and reading regarding the large amounts of areas covered . The author is awesome and a Bettie ! Sometimes she goes into too much detail on areas which can be skimmed over in a less repetitive way !!

One person found this helpful

Jerome

Interessante

Reviewed in Italy on January 3, 2016

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Storia della DARPA, l'ente americano che si occupa dello sviluppo dei sistemi d'arma avanzati e le armi del futuro, alcuni nientemeno che fantascientifici. Il libro è stato criticato per la non accuratezza documentale di alcuni temi e per scarso approfondimento di altri, ma resta comunque un ottimo mezzo per conoscere da vicino le i personaggi e le logiche che stanno dietro allo sviluppo delle armi e mezzi di combattimento moderni.

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