Oh, wow. Easily one of the most interesting books I've ever read, even if it was dumbed down a bit for non-technical people. My only beef was with the last chapter, and that's because I thought the author was a bit too specific about things that are still classified - not because I had a problem with her explanation for Roswell (as some reviewers do).
I've never read so many passages of a book aloud to my significant other. If you have any interest in aviation, nuclear, or space history, just read it. I wish my copy didn't have to go back to the library this week...

I wasn't sure I was going to like this book at the beginning, but then I started to enjoy the stories of the men who worke at Area 51 and became interested in their stories and the "need to know" parts of their lives.

it was metal gear solid all along

As a history of Area 51, the often shadowy spy agencies, black ops and military secrets associated with its legend, Jacobsen's book provides fascinating insights, however a half-baked theory about the truth behind the Roswell incident drags down the credibility of this otherwise excellent piece of reporting. I'd give it my best rating of 4 stars otherwise.

Fascinating stuff.

i liked it

Jacobsen proposes a wild theory about Roswell in an otherwise pretty rational and seemingly deeply researched book (space historians aren't that positive about it, according to Wikipedia), so I'm not sure what to make of this. The ending really called into question the rest of the information in the book. I'm conflicted because she was nominated for a Pulitzer for a different book, and I get that not every source/fact is going to be irrefutable because history is not like that so that could explain away other inconsistencies and inaccuracies, but, uh, the theory she proposes (I'll spoil it below) kind of leads me to be skeptical. Otherwise it's a real fun book, with lots of interesting anecdotes and information. I'm just not sure how much of it I should believe. (Which is hilarious considering how much the book focuses on disinformation campaigns, cover-ups, and conspiracy theories. Maybe it's supposed to be a meta commentary on these subjects?) I can't wait to find out in decades, after the information is declassified.


OK are you ready for the theory? Scroll past this really fast if you don't want to know.








She says the Roswell incident was a Soviet attempt at creating a panic inspired by the American fears of alien invasion and UFOs, such as the one sparked by Orson Welles's radio version of The War of the Worlds. She says there was a flying disc piloted by remote controls and deliberately crashed, that this disc was Soviet-made and operated. This is reasonable enough, sure, the Cold War was a weird and paranoid time. She says the flying disc contained deformed/disabled children in it, that the children had been operated on by Joseph Mengele, the Nazi mad doctor, with their skulls enlarged to make them look like aliens. She says she spoke to an engineer that had studied the children and their disc in order to reverse engineer what the Soviets had done, and that the US government had been performing similar experiments on people without their consent and that the experiments were ongoing as of the 1980s. So. Uh. There's that.