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rose_blossom's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
brennenpeterson's review against another edition
4.0
Got better and better as I listened. Audiobook seemed a little over produced but makes sense because it was planned as an audiobook, not a book. Haywood Hansel and The Bomber Mafia were clearly a good thing to come from the war. Curtis LeMay was the opposite and a sadistic fuck that burned down Japan.
someonesmom's review against another edition
5.0
I wish this book was longer. It was a story that I know nothing about: the early days of US airpower.
Mainly it focuses on the difference in philosophy between Curtis Le May and Haywood Hansel.
Can one have an ethical war? What's better? Bringing war to an end as quickly as possible or saving the lives of civilians by using precision bombing (but it could possibly delay the end of a war)?
No easy questions and not definitely easy answers.
Mainly it focuses on the difference in philosophy between Curtis Le May and Haywood Hansel.
Can one have an ethical war? What's better? Bringing war to an end as quickly as possible or saving the lives of civilians by using precision bombing (but it could possibly delay the end of a war)?
No easy questions and not definitely easy answers.
skalchemy's review against another edition
2.0
Didn't agree with all of his conclusions. Hated the comparison between Christ and Hansell, even if only for the temptation Hansell went through.
letterboxd's review against another edition
4.0
- Were the fire bombings over Japan in WWII worth it?
- The bombings may have saved lives, but at what cost
- Persistence, technology, and innovation are at their best (worst) during wartime
erinsibbick's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
4.75
malcolm gladwell is a fantastic writer
harinid's review against another edition
4.0
For the history buffs and particularly for those who enjoy contemporary world war 2 history, The Bomber Mafia would read as a new discovery. A discussion on an internal strategy of the US Air Forces during the war that one may not have encountered in the mainstream narrative of the war.
I would have wanted a discussion into when precision bombing did actually come into the realm of realistic possibility. Given that Gladwell pushes his hypothesis of precision bombing resulting in fewer deaths in war and more decisive wars, the book has an abrupt ending. It ends with the failure of the idea in the second world war due to the bomber's inability to target precisely and then just a short paragraph concluding that post second world war this was achieved. That required a further exploration on my point given the author's hypothesis.
A fun read on a peculiar story during the second world war nonetheless!
I would have wanted a discussion into when precision bombing did actually come into the realm of realistic possibility. Given that Gladwell pushes his hypothesis of precision bombing resulting in fewer deaths in war and more decisive wars, the book has an abrupt ending. It ends with the failure of the idea in the second world war due to the bomber's inability to target precisely and then just a short paragraph concluding that post second world war this was achieved. That required a further exploration on my point given the author's hypothesis.
A fun read on a peculiar story during the second world war nonetheless!
grifen87's review against another edition
3.0
On the surface, the Bomber Mafia is a semi-technical but reader-friendly account of bombing strategies in World War II and the advent of guided bombing, but on a deeper level it's a discussion of the ethical dilemmas and tradeoffs involved in war strategy. For example, the question arises: should you invent something with good intentions if it could possibly be used to do more harm than before? In this context, that means inventing a bombsight so that bombing crews can aim for targets of military significance rather than blind-bombing entire cities but then seeing your "humane" bombsight being used to specifically target civilian districts. But we can apply this empirical question to many other scenarios such as the invention of the internet, the iPhone, the automobile, etc.
There is also another ethical question presented in this story: is it better to make war shorter and less humane or longer and more humane? This was the question faced by two bombing captains in the Pacific theater who chose different answers. The first chose the humane, conventional path and was replaced by the second who took the initiative to fire-bomb some sixteen Japanese cities with ridiculously high destruction rates, setting the stage such that the infamous atomic bombs were superfluous in comparison to the destruction he had done. In retrospect, he spared Japan of the consequences that would have resulted from a more drawn-out war, i.e. the occupation of Japan by both Russia and the United States, starvation of the Japanese population, and the dividing-up of the nation to both victors, but it's not likely that LeMay, this second captain, was aware of this. LeMay's strategy was certainly controversial but I'm sure none of us would've wanted to face the dilemma he did under the pressure of his superiors with the awareness that he would be replaced if he failed.
On the book itself, I do have a few comments. The title "Bomber Mafia" is catchy but was more confusing to me than anything. Maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention, but it wasn't clear to me who exactly the Bomber Mafia was. Did they call themselves this? Were they a coordinated group working together? It seems that they were the men who revolutionized bombing strategy, but they were more a handful of individuals working in parallel who happened to bring about this revolution rather than a "mafia" as such.
It also isn't clear to me what about this story inspired Gladwell's obsession. I assume it was the ethical questions but I'm curious to hear more about his obsession with this topic and how it came about.
There also isn't a clear connection between the narrative of the bombsight and the later bombing of Japan. If LeMay bombed Japan with napalm, did he really need the bombsight? Maybe this was also just a lack of attention on my part.
I did appreciate how the audiobook was presented more as a podcast than a book, and not only that but I was able to move almost seamlessly between the book and audiobook despite this.
Finally, I appreciate Gladwell's exploration into this topic and the associated ethical questions. These ethical explorations are a large part of why I study history, and I think it's crucial for any society to look back on its past, confront its assumptions about itself and other societies, and consider that feedback objectively to improve itself for the future. Unfortunately we in the United States tend to encourage a systemic cultural amnesia, assuming we know better than our ancestors and thus losing ourselves to pragmatic self-interest.
There is also another ethical question presented in this story: is it better to make war shorter and less humane or longer and more humane? This was the question faced by two bombing captains in the Pacific theater who chose different answers. The first chose the humane, conventional path and was replaced by the second who took the initiative to fire-bomb some sixteen Japanese cities with ridiculously high destruction rates, setting the stage such that the infamous atomic bombs were superfluous in comparison to the destruction he had done. In retrospect, he spared Japan of the consequences that would have resulted from a more drawn-out war, i.e. the occupation of Japan by both Russia and the United States, starvation of the Japanese population, and the dividing-up of the nation to both victors, but it's not likely that LeMay, this second captain, was aware of this. LeMay's strategy was certainly controversial but I'm sure none of us would've wanted to face the dilemma he did under the pressure of his superiors with the awareness that he would be replaced if he failed.
On the book itself, I do have a few comments. The title "Bomber Mafia" is catchy but was more confusing to me than anything. Maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention, but it wasn't clear to me who exactly the Bomber Mafia was. Did they call themselves this? Were they a coordinated group working together? It seems that they were the men who revolutionized bombing strategy, but they were more a handful of individuals working in parallel who happened to bring about this revolution rather than a "mafia" as such.
It also isn't clear to me what about this story inspired Gladwell's obsession. I assume it was the ethical questions but I'm curious to hear more about his obsession with this topic and how it came about.
There also isn't a clear connection between the narrative of the bombsight and the later bombing of Japan. If LeMay bombed Japan with napalm, did he really need the bombsight? Maybe this was also just a lack of attention on my part.
I did appreciate how the audiobook was presented more as a podcast than a book, and not only that but I was able to move almost seamlessly between the book and audiobook despite this.
Finally, I appreciate Gladwell's exploration into this topic and the associated ethical questions. These ethical explorations are a large part of why I study history, and I think it's crucial for any society to look back on its past, confront its assumptions about itself and other societies, and consider that feedback objectively to improve itself for the future. Unfortunately we in the United States tend to encourage a systemic cultural amnesia, assuming we know better than our ancestors and thus losing ourselves to pragmatic self-interest.