History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Tuxedo Park : A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II

Average customer rating:

What an amazing book
Achievement with a Capital "A"?
One of the most important men in US history
Have we lost the spark?
Excellent book on WWII, RADAR and MIT Rad Lab

Tuxedo Park : A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II
Jennet Conant
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0684872889

Amazon.com

This must have been an extremely difficult book to write. Its subject, Alfred Loomis, never gave interviews during his lifetime and destroyed all his papers before his death. "Few men of Loomis' prominence and achievement have gone to greater lengths to foil history," writes author Jennet Conant. Had he not done these things, his name would be better known--and this probably wouldn't be the first biography about him. So who was Alfred Loomis? "He was too complex to categorize--financier, philanthropist, society figure, physicist, inventor, amateur, dilettante--a contradiction in terms," writes Conant. Loomis established a private laboratory in New York and hired scientists whose work in the 1930s wound up making possible both the radar and the atomic bomb. These developments were essential to Allied victory in the Second World War. Conant is perhaps the only person who could have pierced Loomis's obsessive secrecy and written this book; she grew up with Loomis's children and other members of his family. Her grandfather, Harvard president James Bryant Conant, was one of Loomis's scientists. Tuxedo Park is an important book about the development of military technology in the United States; admirers of The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes and similar titles won't want to miss it. --John Miller

Book Description

The Untold Story of the American Entrepreneur Who Helped Build the Atomic Bomb and Defeat the Nazis.

Legendary financier, philanthropist, and society figure Alfred Lee Loomis gathered the most visionary scientific minds of the twentieth century -- Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, Enrico Fermi, and others -- at his state-of-the-art laboratory in Tuxedo Park, New York, in the late 1930s. He established a top-secret defense laboratory at MIT and personally bankrolled pioneering research into new, high-powered radar detection systems that helped defeat the German Air Force and U-boats. With Ernest Lawrence, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, he pushed Franklin Delano Roosevelt to fund research in nuclear fission, which led to the development of the atomic bomb.

Jennet Conant, the granddaughter of James Bryant Conant, one of the leading scientific advisers of World War II, enjoyed unprecedented access to Loomis' papers, as well as to people intimately involved in his life and work. She pierces through Loomis' obsessive secrecy and illuminates his role in assuring the Allied victory.

Customer Reviews:

What an amazing book.......2007-07-01

Being a very big history buff, I was shocked to find out about the little-known contribution of a single patriotic individual that totally changed the progress of the war. This book is a must read for all! Extremely well written to entice the reader and present the facts; personal as well as historical.

Achievement with a Capital "A"?.......2007-06-03

Having been a Radarman in the Vietnam War, I found the gensis of radar and the man responsible for it and many other things in life. Albert Loomis was a giant in the first half of the 20th Century and under the radar. He may have been bigger in the first half of the century than Bill Gates was in the second half. But, you won't know why until you read the book and understand the magnitude of his impact on America and the World then and now.

One of the most important men in US history.......2006-12-14

Chances are you have never heard of Alfred Loomis before this book but you will not forget him once you have read it. This man is truly one of the most influential people in US history. A modern day renaissance man who made millions in the stock market before 1929 and was a genius scientist who developed modern radar technology. He established a lab at Tuxedo Park where he hosted scientists who would work on a variety of projects. While he was not directly connected to the Manhattan project many of the things worked on at his lab were eventually essential for the project. He worked closely with Vannavear Bush to bring over radar technology that would be invaluable for both sub hunting and eventually air defense in World War 2. This scientist even left his mark in World War 1 helping to develop new ways to fire artillery. If you want an interesting story this is the book for you.

Have we lost the spark?.......2006-12-05

Alfred Loomis was a bona fide "Wall Street tycoon" who made his fortune in the 1920s by helping to organize the financing for the electrification of America and had the foresight to sell out before the stock market crash in 1929. Thereafter, he became an amateur scientist who cultivated the best and the brightest in the scientific world and maintained a laboratory complex in an enclave of the wealthy named Tuxedo Park.

As the Second World War approached our shores, this activity became increasingly urgent - no longer the indulgence of a rich and brilliant man's fancy, but a matter of great national importance. The die was cast when Loomis's older cousin and long-time mentor, Henry Stimson, was appointed by President Roosevelt as Secretary of War.

Loomis assumed responsibility for a newly created laboratory at MIT that developed sophisticated new radar systems (building on work that had been done in England) at breakneck speed that played a vital role in winning the war. He also supported the atomic bomb program, in this case acting as a collaborator with and expediter for the people directly responsible.

It would be hard to imagine a more vivid account of the key people in this saga, the challenges they faced (including getting around bureaucratic budget rules and overcoming irrational objections), and their inestimable contribution to our country's victory. They weren't perfect human beings, and their accomplishments would leave the world with many new problems. Still, we can and should be proud and inspired by the things that they accomplished.

Do our leaders today have the same knack for figuring out the things that need to be done and going after them? One wonders, given the long-term gridlock that has developed around many key technical issues such as building new refineries in the United States, developing untapped oil and gas reserves in Alaska and offshore areas, and even getting clearance to deepen the shipping channel in the Delaware River from 40 to 45 feet.

Why are U.S., firms racing to "outsource" their manufacturing operations to China, India, etc.? The answer is not hard to figure out, and the long-term consequences will not be to our liking.

Excellent book on WWII, RADAR and MIT Rad Lab.......2006-11-09

A friend gave me this book because he knew I grew up in Boston and thought I would like it. As it turns out it is an amazing story about Alfred Loomis and his contributions to Radar in WWII and the starting of the MIT Rad Lab that was the predecessor of MIT Lincoln Labs. As it turns out my father worked on radar and other projects at MIT Lincoln Labs and it was great to read how that all came about.

This is a fascinating book.

German Secret Weapons of the Second World War: The Missiles, Rockets, Weapons and New Technology of the Third Reich

Average customer rating:

HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY THE VICTORS!
Can't put it down
Disapointing
Awesome!!
Save your money!

German Secret Weapons of the Second World War: The Missiles, Rockets, Weapons and New Technology of the Third Reich
Ian V. Hogg
Manufacturer: Greenhill Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Military Science | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1853673250

Book Description

& 40 b/w plates & 20 diagrams & 6 x 9 & Weapon-by-weapon study by a leading expert & Exposes the full extent of the Third Reich's secret weapons program & Separates fact from fiction The sheer magnitude of the secret weapon program of the Third Reich is revealed in this comprehensive study, which covers weapons actually produced and projects still in their infancy when the war ended. The infamous V-1 and V-2 missiles that ravaged London are well known. But what of the V-3 and V-4? What of the Schmetterling, the Rchling shell, the Kurt bomb, the Hs293? What of Germany's programs for nuclear and chemical warfare? This volume examines the specific weapons on which the Germans concentrated, the difficulties they encountered, and how some concepts were subsequently exploited by the Allies. It explodes some of the myths surrounding Hitler's secret weapons to reveal a truth all the stranger for being fact. Ian V. Hogg is a respected authority on weaponry and the author of numerous books, including German Artillery of World War II and The World's Sniping Rifles.

Customer Reviews:

HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY THE VICTORS!.......2005-10-25

Don't judge a book by is cover.that is the mistake i made on Ian V.hogg book.the information on the book looked like a summary of sellected weapons of the Third riech.history is really written by the victors.i could not ignore the baised comments and lies about the third riech.As a historian one is supposed to distance himself of the demonization process and baised conclusions.their were no pictures to illustate what the weapons looked like but word problems that the reader had to solve.it is no secret that the allies exploited on german technologyand it is fair to say that 90% of all the weapons we see today are the direct desendants of hitler's top sectert weapons.it is for this reason that the weapons in the soviet,american and british arsenals resembled and one another.the author also dodges the question of germanys nuclear project.hitler did have a nuclear weapon at the end of the war and it fell into allied hands and thus both sides aquired the weapons that gave rise to the cold war.Read the book by birlin historian entitled Hitler's Bombe,getmany was the first to detonate the first atomic bomb.the author is ignorant of this or is delebrately dodging the questions.what is the big deal the war is over the soviet union is fallen and it is safe to reveal the truth right now.

Can't put it down.......2005-06-05

This book at first seems very ordinary with its monochrome blue cover and its dense text. Once you start, it's a whole different story. The book almost reads like a novel and is a real page turner. No details appear absent (at the level the book is pitched). I find this technology fascinating and enjoyed the book immensely. In short, don't judge a book by its cover, once you start reading you will find out how good this book really is. The only thing missing is more of the same !

Disapointing.......2004-03-19

Overly technical in places and light on information in others, limited illustrations and photos are very small not the authors best work, the hardcover version only has a glued spine and as such started to split almost immediately.

Awesome!!.......2000-10-11

Even the book is technical in nature I have read this book several times and it is awesome. It is amazing that the Germany's "wonder weapons" of World War II lead to today's development of inter-continental ballistic missiles and the modern air-to-ground missiles. Just imagine if the war lasted into 1946 we would be dealing with these "wonder weapons". This is a must read for history buffs!!!

Save your money!.......2000-09-14

Not a bargain at any price. What few illusrations there are are tiny, the text provides no information not presented elsewhere dozen of times. A real waste of money.

Reich Of The Black Sun: Nazi Secret Weapons & The Cold War Allied Legend

Average customer rating:

Intriguing but ultimately disappointing
Information Galore!
Utter Nonsense
Who proofread this book??
A fascinating and thoughtfully engaging historical treatise

Reich Of The Black Sun: Nazi Secret Weapons & The Cold War Allied Legend
Joseph P. Farrell
Manufacturer: Adventures Unlimited Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1931882398

Book Description

A fascinating expose proving that Nazi Germany won the race for the atom bomb in late 1944. Were the Nazis secretly researching the occult, alternative physics and new energy sources' This scientific-historical journey tracks down the proof and answers these fascinating questions: * What were the Nazis developing in Czechoslovakia' * Why did the US Army test the atom bomb on Hiroshima' * Why did the Luftwaffe fly a non-stop round-trip mission within twenty miles of New York City in 1944'

Customer Reviews:

Intriguing but ultimately disappointing.......2007-04-05

According to the author's preface, "This is not a work of history. But neither is it a work merely of fiction." Unfortunately, it would have been much more entertaining had it been a work of fiction by any decent thriller writer.

The first part of the book argues that the Nazis had multiple functional atomic bombs in 1944-45, the capture of which was the main reason for the success of the Manhattan Project. This is an intriguing premise and plausible enough if you don't worry overmuch about the author's heavy reliance on secondary sources (including a manuscript published only on the Internet), and if you are willing to overlook some very tenuous chains of reasoning. For example, the author describes several conflicting accounts of the death of a highly placed SS officer allegedly in charge of Nazi secret weapons research: "No one, no where can advance anything like a consistent account of the date, location, time, or even method of Kammler's death... In all likelihood, therefore, Kammler did not die at all..."

Still, you may be able to maintain your suspension of disbelief until you get into part 2, which concerns Nazi experimentation with flying saucers, "quantum numerology", "vorticular physics", and other -- let us say -- unconventional areas of research. Of course, it is entirely possible that some Nazis did investigate these areas, but to treat them seriously only undermines the credibility, such as it is, of the arguments presented in the first part. Part 3 goes downhill even faster as it attempts to link the alleged UFO crashes in Roswell with secret Nazi research projects.

I give the author full marks for foreshadowing and hinting at vast dark secrets to be revealed. Unfortunately (perhaps inevitably), the actual revelations are rather anticlimactic, since they are bound to strike anyone but another conspiracy theorist as just plain silly. Still, I could see the seeds for half a dozen adventure novels in this book. Perhaps one day someone will write one.

Information Galore!.......2006-09-12

I found the book to be very readable and full of references to documentation supporting to the hypotheses. I imagine that at some point in time in the future, the author may need to do another book to "update" us on material as it is released from various governments. As others have mentioned, there are typos, from the printer,not proofing, before printing. However, I found that the typos did not cause any difficulties in reading it. Overall the author proposes several well researched hypotheses, and presents them well.

Utter Nonsense.......2006-06-06

Besides the constant typos, the complete lack of proofreading there is the obvious fabrication of "facts", like the giant air field with 40 huge Heinkel bombers waiting to bomb New York. A friend in Norway who is also a WW2 affectionato tells me there never was an airfield like that, nor anything bigger than FW 200's stationed there. The "scientific" speculation toward the end of the book is laughable. Save your money and buy something with some credibility.

Who proofread this book??.......2005-11-25

To being with, who proofread this book? There are typos on virtually every page. It is very distracting to read text like this. When I see this I wonder if the author really knows how to spell. There are some intriguing ideas in this book but most of the topics have been covered elsewhere, and by far better writers. Three stars for effort.

A fascinating and thoughtfully engaging historical treatise.......2005-03-07

In Reich Of The Black Sun: Nazi Secret Weapons & The Cold War Allied Legend, author and iconoclast Joseph Farrell provides intriguing answers to a series of hitherto unasked questions: Why were the Allies worried about an atom bomb attack by the Germans in 1944? Why did the Soviets threaten to use poison gas against the Germans? Why did Hitler insist in 1945 that holding Prague could win the war for the Nazis? Why did General George Patton's Third Army race to control the Skoda Works at Pilsen in Czechoslovakia instead of heading for Berlin? Why did the American army not test the uranium bomb it dropped on Hiroshima? Why did the Luftwaffe fly a non-stop round trip mission to within twenty miles of New York City in 1944?. Reich Of The Black Sun is a simply fascinating and thoughtfully engaging historical treatise that reveals the Nazis fascination with the occult, alternative physics, as well as new energy sources and weaponry. Inherently thought provoking reading, Reich Of The Black Sun draws upon a wealth of documentation and an "alternative history" discourse that is as thoughtful as it is thought provoking. Very highly recommended reading and a seminal addition to personal and academic World War II historical studies collections.

Average customer rating:

Secret Agent's Handbook

Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Intelligence & Espionage | Military | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1585742864

Book Description

Here is the catalog from which real spies once ordered their explosives, gadgets, and equipement!

Have you ever fantasized about what it would be like to be a secret agent? A super-spy? To have at your disposal the wild gadgets seen in movies like Mission Impossible and the James Bond series? Cloak-and-dagger escapades have been a mainstay on the screen and in literature, but the stuff of these movies and spy novels was based on fact. And the clandestine duties required of covert operators entailed employing every possible advantage.

Secret Agent's Handbook is the original catalog used by the actual British S.O.E. agents to select weapons, gadgets, and disguises for their secret missions during World War II. The S.O.E. was the secret wartime organization set up to promote sabotage in enemy-occupied countries, with active and often highly personal encouragement from Winston Churchill.

Following Winston Churchill's directive to "set Europe ablaze," the Special Operations Executive set about organizing resistance in Europe and beyond as best they could. To aid in these harrowing activities, government scientists and inventors produced a remarkable and vast array of devices designed specifically for covert sabotage missions.

This intriguing collection includes the equipment that secret agents used-such wild devices as exploding rats and Chianti bottles, shoes that leave barefoot prints, incendiary briefcases and cigarettes-as well as the deadliest of weapons. Each item is featured with a photograph or illustration and is described in detail. Also included are full instructions for use and information as to how they were utilized on real-life spy missions.

Average customer rating:

A must-read for history buffs

I think this is my favorite book ever

Bizarre, hilarious, humorous, wonderful - Buy it.

A truly crazy story!

Fantastic

Bat Bomb: World War II's Other Secret Weapon
Jack Couffer
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0292707908

Book Description

It was a crazy way to win World War II in the Pacific-- All the United States had to do was to attach small incendiary bombs to millions of bats and release them over Japan's major cities. As the bats went to roost, a million fires would flare up in remote crannies of the wood and paper buildings common throughout Japan. When their cities were reduced to ashes, the Japanese would surely capitulate... The plan made sense to a handful of eccentric promoters and researchers, who convinced top military brass and even President Roosevelt to back the scheme. It might have worked, except that another secret weapon--something to do with atoms--was chosen to end the war. Told here by the youngest member of the team, this is the story of the bat bomb project, or Project X-Ray, as it was officially known. In scenes worthy of a Capra or Hawks comedy, Jack Couffer recounts the unorthodox experiments carried out in the secrecy of Bandera, Texas, Carlsbad, New Mexico, and El Centro, California, in 1942-1943 by "Doc" Adams' private army. This oddball cast of characters included an eccentric inventor, a distinguished Harvard scientist, a biologist with a chip on his shoulder, a movie star, a Texas guano collector, a crusty Marine Corps colonel, a Maine lobster fisherman, an ex-mobster, and a tiger. Not to be defeated by minor logistical hurdles, the bat bomb researchers risked life and limb to explore uncharted bat caves and "recruit" thousands of bats to serve their country. Through months of personality conflicts, military snafus, and technical failures the team pressed on, certain that bats could end the war with Japan. And they might have--in their first airborne test, the bat bombers burned an entire brand-new military airfield to the ground. For everyone who relishes true tales of action and adventure, Bat Bomb is a must-read. Bat enthusiasts will also discover the beginnings of the scientific study of bats.

Customer Reviews:

A must-read for history buffs.......2006-10-30

An unknown but funny and very well-written chapter in history. The bat bomb carried zillions of bats, each of which had an incendiary device tied to it. The goal was to burn down Japanese towns. During its first test, it accidentally burned down the building housing the project! Talk about just desserts. This will cure anyone who thinks history is boring.

I think this is my favorite book ever.......2006-10-08

This book contains the funniest line I have ever read, already quoted by another reviewer: "We got a sure thing like the bat bomb going...." But there is much more to this book. The writing is incredible. For example, the author describes what happens when they use movie lights to illuminate the inside of one cave for the first time in its history. The description of almost being suffocated by clouds of bats so thick is first rate. Also, the tender retelling of his romance with Arlie is top notch. Who would have expected such deft handling of first love in a book about bat bombs? It made me want more of this material. I also treasured the retelling of the tiger mascot, "Top Sarge." Or when our hero tries to beat the cowboys at their own game in calf-roping. I could go on and on. I think the key to the success of this book is how the author treats all the characters with upmost respect. There is nothing snarky about how the author treats the self-important Patsy, who was Capone's driver, or the guano salesman.

Read this book. You won't be disappointed.

Bizarre, hilarious, humorous, wonderful - Buy it........2002-11-28

Wonderfully humorous and hilarious factual account of one of the most bizarre "weapons" developed by the United States during WW-II.

A truly crazy story!.......2002-05-06

I read this at about the same time I discovered Richard Rhodes' "The Making of the Atomic Bomb". The contrast between the seemingly insane bat bomb and the almost farcial nature of it's builder's quest contrasted wonderfully with the serious and dark tones of the Manhattan project. This book has parts that made me laugh out loud, which is something that few history books can do.

The story of prospecting the cave is priceless, and it gives me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it...

Fantastic.......1998-04-09

BAT BOMB covers a quite unknown but important part of World War II history. It got good reviews, but the public seemed to neglect it (I don't know why). This book is not only an important history lesson, it is also a wildly entertaining read. Don't YOU neglect this book. Read it. You'll love it.

Unit 731: Japan's Secret Biological Warfare in World War II

Average customer rating:

Recommended reading by nervegas.com
Biological Warfare in World War II and WW3???

Unit 731: Japan's Secret Biological Warfare in World War II
Peter Williams , and David Wallace
Manufacturer: Free Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Strategy | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Terrorism | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0029353017

Customer Reviews:

Recommended reading by nervegas.com.......2002-10-02

One of the earlier works on Unit 731. Written by investigative journalists after they worked on a television series for BBC.

The first part of the book covers the beginning of Japans BW efforts by focusing on LTG Shiro Ishii. It describes the man, his achievements, and how he progressed into managing a BW empire.

Following this third of the book is how the US investigated Japan's BW efforts, and then followed by the data swap for immunity from war crimes.

The story is fast past, interesting, and well researched. It is not a true historical study, but a well written investigative report. Along with BW, the book also covers Balloon attacks, and the possibility that US POW's were used in experiments.

Biological Warfare in World War II and WW3???.......2001-07-29

Excellent research & story telling, interesting subject matter, frightening & informative.

Heisenberg's War: The Secret History of the German Bomb

Average customer rating:

The relative nature of history
Somewhat dull / Unconvincing Theme
Scholarly but unpersuasive -- and heavy with details
One of the best written books I have ever read!
How History should be written

Heisenberg's War: The Secret History of the German Bomb
Thomas Powers
Manufacturer: Da Capo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0306810115

Book Description

The inspiration for Michael Frayn's Tony Award-winning play Copenhagen, Heisenberg's War tells of the interplay between science and espionage, morality and military necessity, and paranoia and cool logic that marked the German bomb program and the allied response to it. On the basis of dozens of interviews and years of research, Thomas Powers concludes that Werner Heisenberg, who was the leading figure in the German atomic effort, consciously obstructed the development of the bomb and in a famous 1941 meeting with his former mentor Neils Bohr in effect sought to dissuade the Allies from their pursuit of the bomb.

Customer Reviews:

The relative nature of history.......2005-06-02

This is a solid, well-researched book that presents Heisenberg in a fair light, for once.

One of the problems with reader/reviewer bias is that many people are pre-disposed to finding fault with any suggestions that conflict with what they want to hear or believe. Regarding the Farm Hall recordings, some people have latched onto the idea that Heisenberg and others knew of the build up of the Holocaust, but continued to work for the Bomb project.

What they are usually referring to is a section in which Heisenberg talked about five Jewish scientists, whom he obviously cared about, who had been arrested and later killed; and even though Heisenberg was talking openly about putting out feelers to see if they could be helped or saved (which alone could have put him at great risk), this somehow translates into guilt in some people's eyes.

As for him 'not co-operating with Hitler'... nobody in their right mind could possibly think that was an option. As I believe the book shows, Heisenberg did the next best thing, which was to work half-heartedly on the German Bomb. He basically killed it in 1942.

The fact that Heisenberg could come up with the correct basic bomb structure - path and critical mass analysis, in very short order almost certainly means that he could have brainstormed the right methodology years earlier if the German scientists had been 100% committed to producing a bomb for Hitler. If they had been Nazis.

To me, this fine book is one more step in the right direction, in underscoring the very fact that not all Germans were Nazis.

Hitler may have been a charismatic leader, but he made so many catastrophic errors, such as the insane decision to declare war on the USA in the hope that the Japanese would help him against the Russians - they never lifted a finger - that it is as true to say that Hitler lost the War as to say that the Allies won it.

A fair and highly recommended book.

Somewhat dull / Unconvincing Theme.......2004-08-24

My first criticism is that the book has way too much minutia which made it dull. I had to really plough through some of it and my reading was interruped by many naps.

The second criticism is of the main thesis: That Werner Heisenberg sabotaged the German bomb effort deliberately. I believe his comment at Farm Hall ("How could the Americans have separated two tons of U235?") was a spontaneous statement made by a man who had, until that moment, believed that he was the leader of the pack, and suddenly realized he was the Captain of the Bavarian Little League. It was a reflection of his confusion, shock and ego deflation, not a calculated deception of his fellow scientists. I just looked at the design specs of his Uranium machine in Haigerloch and it has no control rods. More confusion! It is difficult to recapture the total gestalt of the German scientist's predicament. Some of the parts of it were fear of failure. Associated with this is a lack of boldness on any of their parts. There was no Groves in Germany (as in Leslie R. Groves). If you work for Franklin Roosevelt and spend 2 billion dollars and fail, you would get fired and spend the rest of your life testifying before Congress. Do that with Hitler and you wouldn't get fired, you would get fired upon! There was a belief on the part of the nazi gov. that the war would be won soon. The held from 1930 until 1942. No sense of urgency! But Heisenberg was not an engineering physicist. He was no Fermi. That is part of it too. To say he sabotaged the German program as part of a heroic effort is simple historical revisionism for the purpose of presenting a new twist.

If you read this, read "Hitler's Uranium Club" by Jeremy Bernstein to get the right balance on this.

Scholarly but unpersuasive -- and heavy with details.......2004-02-16

While I found this book interesting and informative when it dwelled upon the personalities and contributions of the physicists who discovered and explored the field of quantum mechanics prior to WW2, I found two problems with the book as it entered the war. First, it spent too much time, at least for me, on the details of minor episodes and players. In this sense, I might have appreciated the treatment had I been a scholar researching the field - but I wasn't. Hence, I often found the reading dull. Second, I found Powers' ultimate thesis - that Heisenberg purposefully delayed the German atomic bomb program - unpersuasive. It appeared to me that Powers often strained his interpretation of the facts to make them conform to his thesis. For example, when reviewing Heisenberg's "Farm Hall" statement in August 1945 that two tons of U235 was required to make an atomic bomb, Powers suggests that because Heisenberg articulated the appropriate lesser amount a week later, and because he purportedly suggested at an earlier date that a bomb could be the size of a football, his "two ton" statement was a purposeful "error." Equally persuasive, if not more, is the simple thought that Heisenberg did indeed grossly overestimate what was required, thereby prompting him to tell Speer in 1942 that a bomb was impractical. This is not to say that Powers is necessarily wrong. I simply believe that based on the facts he presents, the issue remains debatable.

One of the best written books I have ever read!.......2002-02-13

This book is amazing on so many different levels I am not really sure where to begin. It is an amazingly well written, compelling, insightful, and utterly fascinating book on it's own. Fortunately, it is so much more than just a really well written book, it is TRUE story that everyone needs to read. It is book about a true hero, a courageous man who risked his life and his reputation to save tens of millions of lives. I don't really want to give too much away, but it answers a question that many World War 2 historians want to know: WHY didn't the Germans create the Atomic Bomb? Well, there is one word for why, Heisenberg. This man stayed in Germany and deliberately sabotaged the Nazi's attempts to make the bomb.
In a world where people struggle to find heroes and gather up courage it is a shame not many people know this story. I think many people would be amazed at the sacrafices one very proud man would endure to save the world. Please read this book, you will not be disappointed.

How History should be written.......2001-11-29

Heisenberg's War shouldn't be called just Heisenberg's war: it should be called Physics During World War 2 or something of that nature. This book does not concentrate solely on Werner Heisenberg, the great theoretical physicist, but also on the Los Alsos mission of America, specific characters within that mission and other important physicists throughout the world. Knowing little about Physics before reading this book (having only completed an AP course in high school) Powers educates the reader on the basis of Physics that needs to be known to fully understand the book and it's subject. In fact, this book took me 3 months to read, the longest it has ever taken me to read a book, because I would attempt to learn the physics being taught. It was a thoroughly rewarding experience. Nonetheless, if you have no interest in physics, I suggest you skip this book. This was a complete history and Powers managed to get many first hand accounts, most surprisingly, in my opinion, from Carl Friedrich von Weiszacker, Heisenberg's most brilliant pupil and fellow member of the Uranverein (read the book and you'll understand). A new conclusion is drawn about why Heisenberg and his fellow German physicists didn't build an atomic bomb, in contrast to the old conclusion which suggested it was due to, in short, 'bumbling Nazis'. Powers suggests the Heisenberg and his cohorts didn't want to build a bomb for Hitler. Though he does respect the fact that perhaps there were also several important flaws in their thinking; for example, Heisenberg thought a bomb could run with slow molecules, which, apparently, it couldn't (I'm no scientists). Overall, this is a complete history which is, at points, a page turner and I suggest anyone with an interest in the politics behind World War 2 of Physics purchase it.

Hitler's Uranium Club: The Secret Recordings at Farm Hall

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Get it from the horse's mouth, Werner Heisenberg himself.
A biassed book
A startling and sobering set of documents

Hitler's Uranium Club: The Secret Recordings at Farm Hall
J. Bernstein
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0387950893

Book Description

From April through December of 1945, ten of Nazi Germany's greatest nuclear physicists were detained by Allied military and intelligence services in a kind of gilded cage at Farm Hall, an English country manor near Cambridge. The physicists knew the Reich had failed to develop an atomic bomb, and they soon learned, from a BBC radio report on August 6, that the Allies had succeeded in their own efforts to create such a weapon. But what they did not know was that many of their meetings and private conversations were being monitored and recorded by British agents. This book contains the complete collection of transcripts that were made from these secret recordings, providing an unprecedented view of how the German scientists, including two Nobel Laureates, thought and spoke about their roles during the war.

Customer Reviews:

Get it from the horse's mouth, Werner Heisenberg himself........2002-09-05

This book consists of expertly annotated transcripts of conversations of German scientists taken at Farm Hall after the end of the WWII in Europe. The book is based on the recently de-classified "Farm Hall Transcripts", a revealing set of informative statements which demonstrates the low level of understanding that the German Scientists had of how to build Atomic Bombs. It is written and annotated by an American physicist, so you get some insights as to Heisenberg's mistakes. The book is a refutation of the book "Heisenberg's War" by Thomas Powers, a revisionist history that claims that Heisenberg, Germany's top scientist, really knew how an Atomic Bomb worked, but withheld this information from his colleagues and the German Government.

Heisenberg remains a mystery. He won a Nobel Prize in Physics in the early 1930s for his "Uncertainty Principle" which deals with Quantum Mechanics. Yet despite his brilliance, he sounds pretty ignorant at Farm Hall. Was he faking? I think not. To paraphrase Watergate: the question still is "What did Werner Heisenberg know and when did he know it? At Farm Hall, when he found out about Hiroshima, his ego deflated like an untied balloon. His comments were made at a vulnerable and candid moment. They reveal a knowledge one would expect from someone you picked at random at a shopping mall.

The Manhattan Project was at least as much engineering as science, and Heisenberg was more of a theologian than a nuts 'n bolts guy.

But hey, don't take my word for it. If you are really interested, I recommend this book along with "Heisenberg's War" so you get both sides. Then read "Alsos" by Samuel Goudschmidt, the scientific leader of the famous Alsos Mission, who along with Col. Boris T. Pash ("The Alsos Mission"), followed the allied armies into France and captured Heisenberg and the others. Goudschmidt was a physicist who offered the earliest (1947) and perhaps the most philosophical postmortem on the German A-bomb "program".

A biassed book.......2002-05-15

The author tells an interesting story about some of the most known german physicist and their role in the attempt to produce an atomic bomb. Unfortunatelly he does not tell the pure facts, he gives his personal interpretation on each comment made by the germans and tries to make you think that they wanted to produce a bomb at any cost, that one of the most famous physicist, Heisenberg, did not know enough nuclear physics and that everything Heisenberg said, was just to hide his failure. A biassed book.

A startling and sobering set of documents.......2001-03-19

Toward the end of World War II, ten German nuclear physicists were captured by American and British forces and sent to Farm Hall, An English country house near Cambridge for six months. While there they were interrogated about Germany's nuclear research. Farm Hall was a comfortable prison, but it was bugged and their every word was secretly monitored by British agents. Now in a revised and updated second edition, Hitler's Uranium Club: The Secret Recordings At Farm Hall is a complete collection of transcripts made from those secret recordings in 1945. Expertly annotated by Jeremy Bernstein and put in context by Bernstein (and with an informative introduction by David Cassidy). This startling and sobering set of documents provide an insight into the thoughts and feelings of these ten scientists as they considered the destruction of the Third Reich, the failure of their beloved "German Physics", and the roles they played in the Nazi war effort. Hitler's Uranium Club is a unique, informative, invaluable, and at times unsettling contribution to World War II studies.

Bombshell : The Secret Story of America's Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy

Average customer rating:

SUBJECT WAS SCUM OF THE EARTH
The hidden Los Alamos mole at the onset of proliferation
Detailed writing, but lacking credibility in places.
Meet the other main KGB source at Los Alamos.
About one fifth of the way through, enjoying the book.

Bombshell : The Secret Story of America's Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy
Joseph Albright
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 081292861X
Release Date: 1997-09-16

Amazon.com

Recruited into the super-secret Manhattan Project while still a teenager, albeit a teenager who had already passed through Harvard, Ted Hall was unquestionably brilliant. But Hall, now an elderly physicist living in England, claims he was also very naive. While working to develop the atomic bomb for the United States, Hall approached Soviet intelligence and proceeded to pass along secrets. His breaches of security, while unknown outside intelligence circles until recently, dwarf the work of better-known Cold War operatives. And what's perhaps most startling is his motivation for giving the Soviets the secrets of the American bomb. Relying on recently declassified materials and interviews with the participants in the plot, Bombshell reads like an inventive spy novel, yet it's entirely true.

Book Description

Ted Hall was a physics prodigy so gifted that he was asked to join the Manhattan Project when he was only eighteen years old.  There, in wartime Los Alamos, working under Robert Oppenheimer and Bruno Rossi, Hall helped build the atomic bomb.  To his friends and coworkers he was a brilliant young rebel with a boundless future in atomic science.  To his Soviet spymasters, he was something else: "Mlad," their mole within Los Alamos, a most hidden and valuable asset and the men who first slipped them the secrets to the making of the atomic bomb.

In a book that will force the revision of fifty years of scholarship and reporting on the Cold War, award-winning journalists Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel reveal for the first time a devastatingly effective Soviet spy network that infiltrated the Manhattan Project and ferried America's top atomic secrets to Stalin.  At the heart of the network was Hall, who was so secret an operative that even Klaus Fuchs, his fellow Manhattan Project scientist and Soviet agent, had no idea they were comrades.   Bombshell tracks Hall from his days as a brilliant schoolboy in New York City, when he came under the influence of his older brother's radical tracts, and on to Harvard, Los Alamos, and Chicago, where Hall continued to spy even after the war was over, passing more secrets while the Soviets were trying to build the Hydrogen bomb.

For forty years only a few Russians knew what Ted Hall really did.  Now Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel reveal the astonishing true story of the atomic spies who got away.   Bombshell is history at its most explosive.

Customer Reviews:

SUBJECT WAS SCUM OF THE EARTH.......2005-01-26

But this is an excellent book, save for Madeleine Albright's ex-hubby's studied "objectivity"...

To understand the motivation of those Americans who chose to betray their country for the sake of one of the 20th century's worst monsters, Uncle Joe Stalin, is almost unexplainable. Yet Joe Albright and Marcia Kunstel, his (current) wife do an admirable job in explaining why a toady, a pathetic self-righteous "intellectual" by the name of Ted Hall chose to turn over the secrets of Los Alamos and the Nagasaki A-bomb to the Soviet Union.

In doing so, the Albrights also uncover the story of the parallel Rosenberg spy ring, the one headed by Lincoln Brigade veteran Morris Cohen. Cohen and his wife, two of the most despicable people to ever be born in this country, chose a creed no better than Nazism to betray both their country and their people - the Jews of America, as did Hall. Cohen, who truly believed that the future of the world was better off in the hands of Stalin, went to Spain to fight Fascism but ended up becoming a Fascist himself. Wounded in action, he was co-opted to Soviet Intelligence along with several other Lincoln brigaders. The Hitler-Stalin Pact never fazed him, nor Hall, and like the Rosenbergs they didn't care about betraying the America that ensured their freedoms and those of their families. Indeed, when the Rosenbergs were arrested, Cohen and his equally obnoxious wife fled to their beloved Russia.

The justification? According the commentary attributed to both Hall and the late, unlamented Cohen scum, they felt that with the Soviet Union also possessing the A-Bomb it would be prevent an aggressive Capitalist America from pre-empting nuclear war on both the Soviet Union and China. Indeed, Hall, the scientist who handed over the secrets to the Cohens, was passionate in his belief that he prevented the dropping of the bomb on China in 1949. Ironically, Cohen's buddy in the Lincoln brigade, one Jack Bjoze, who is also quoted in this book, also feels the same way. Of course Mao was such a benevolent agarian reformer.

The book is a well-written read, but one gets sickened when confronted with the depravity and moral cowardice of a weasel like Hall and by his traitor pal Cohen who put Stalin above all including Washington, Lincoln, and everything good about America. Unlike the majority of the Lincolns who later left the Party or at least were honest and open about their Communist affiliations, Cohen comes across as a stool pigeon, a toady, and a servile lackey of Stalin. Ironically, and outrageously, the so-called Democrat Boris Yeltsin named Soviet spy Cohen, before he passed on - too late for the good of the world - a hero of Russia. So much for Yeltsin being America's friend.

The Albrights can also be faulted for not portraying Ted Hall and his friends as what they were - they prefer objectivity and letting history decide, in effect giving Hall a pass. In reading "Bombshell" one fervently wishes that Hall and the Cohens were dealt with American justice - at least they would have had their day in court, unlike the hapless masses in Eastern Europe during the Stalin era.

While there might not have been mushroom clouds over American, Soviet and Chinese cities, there were indeed the captive nations of Eastern Europe, the icy dread of the Gulag, the savage purges of Stalin, the hell on earth known as North Korea, and the repressive entity known as Castro's Cuba. Not to mention the thousands of American boys who died on the battlefields of Korea and Vietnam because our leaders were (rightly) concerned over the nuclear armed Communist nations - and still must be today. Not surprisingly both Hall and the Cohens would later express solidarity with Yasser Arafat and Palestinian terrorism. Watch your blood pressure while reading this book about some of the worst traitors in American history.

The hidden Los Alamos mole at the onset of proliferation.......2003-04-26

Beyond Fuchs et al, there had always been suspicions of an extra spy. Now we know. This is the gripping account of Ted Hall,code name Mlad, a teenage whiz kid who suddenly found himself at Los Alamos, savy enough to be at the dead center of bomb calculations, and deciding for idealistic reasons, refusing all payment, to share the secret of the atomic weapon with the Russians. Soon the a virtually complete description of how to construct a weapon is in the hands of the Communists. It is interesting that the original communication was decoded in the late forties, and that he was almost caught, but simply slipped through, until the opening of the archives after 1989.

Detailed writing, but lacking credibility in places........1999-12-04

The authors present detailed and complex research very clearly and offer the reader a comprehensive study of one particular Manhattan project spy (Ted Hall). There are places, however, where history is turned into to sensationalism. Granted, this is meant to be a case study, but at times too much emphasis is placed on Hall's contribution to the spy network. One questions how important any individual person was in a secret operation so large. The authors fail to distance themselves from their subject and consequently do not write from a totally credible perspective.

Meet the other main KGB source at Los Alamos........1999-04-28

4/28/99: Almost all histories of the Manhattan Project mention the quiet German refugee scientist, Klaus Fuchs, code name Charlz, who gave the Soviet Union a good working blueprint of the Nagasaki bomb. But a couple of weeks before Harry Gold picked up Fuch's information, KGB courier Lona Cohen met Ted Hall, code name Mlad ('youth'), in Albuquerque, and got an equally revealing description. BOMBSHELL fills in one of the major missing pieces of the puzzle of Soviet Espionage against the Manhatten Project. Now, if we can just find out who code names Pers, Kvant and Nejtron were, and what information Oppenheimer passed... Highly Recommended.

About one fifth of the way through, enjoying the book........1998-08-01

Interesting book, well written. Fascinating. Fills gaps in my appreciation of 20th Century history.

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