Terrors and marvels : how science and technology changed the character and outcome of World War II / Tom Shachtman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shachtman, Tom, 1942-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1939-1945--Science.

World War, 1939-1945.

World War, 1939-1945--Technology.

Science--History--20th century.

Science.

History.

Physical Description:

viii, 360 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : William Morrow, [2002]

Summary:

A fascinating look at the wondrous and terrible marriage of science and warfare.

The dreadful global conflagration known as the Second World War was more than the clashing of great armies on bloody battlefields. A different kind of war was being waged in the secret laboratories on both sides of the conflict -- a war that would alter the course and determine the outcome of the bitter hostilities, forever changing our world and future.

In a stunning amalgam of science and history, Tom Shachtman, the critically acclaimed author of Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold and The Phony War, 1939-1940, gives us a riveting chronicle of World War II's forgotten combatants: the engineers, physicists, chemists, and academics whose contributions to the war effort were as important as the noble sacrifices of the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who bravely risked their lives.

While it is a widely accepted fact that America's development and employment of the atomic bomb ended the Pacific struggle -- and that the failure of Hitler's scientists to develop their own A-bomb helped to doom Germany -- little note has been made of the other remarkable scientific accomplishments of this dark and terrible epoch. Beginning with a fascinating overview of the Depression-era struggle to establish scientific and military alliances that would ultimately enable the Allies to catch up to the Axis's early dominance, Terrors and Marvels offers an eye-opening history of the furious battles for technological superiority covertly waged by the world's most brilliant minds.

From the creation of faster, deadlier jets and rockets to the development of biological, chemical, and electronic warfare -- from astonishing advances in medical science to breakthroughs in radar and decoding -- the incredible successes and failures that occurred in top-secret facilities around the world in the early 1940s never made headlines but often determined triumph and defeat. Here, also, are the intensely human stories of the architects of the terrifying war machines -- men and women of rare intelligence and integrity torn by the conflicting demands of conscience and country, haunted by their roles in the use and abuse of powerful science.

Edifying, enthralling, startling, and sobering, Terrors and Marvels is a masterful work that sheds light on the astonishing achievements of a remarkable few and the great and terrible technology that swung the pendulum of victory in the Allies' direction.

Contents:

Terror from the Sky 1

Prologue: Legacies of the Great War 5

Section 1 The Interwar Years

Chapter 1 Journeys Toward Conflict 15

Chapter 2 Germany, 1933-34 38

Chapter 3 Until the Shooting Began 51

Section 2 European War

Chapter 4 War and Phony War 85

Chapter 5 Battles Above Britain 118

Chapter 6 Toward Pearl Harbor 143

Section 3 World in Flames

Chapter 7 1942, Year of Trials 165

Chapter 8 Seagoing Science 197

Chapter 9 The Great Shift 223

Chapter 10 Vengeance Weapons 248

Chapter 11 Ending the War 283

Epilogue: Science, Technology, and the Postwar World 311.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [339]-344) and index.

ISBN:

0380978768

OCLC:

47948143