The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War

Malcolm Gladwell

Apr 2021 · Sold by Little, Brown

About this ebook

Dive into this “truly compelling” (Good Morning America) New York Times bestseller that explores how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war—from the creator and host of the podcast Revisionist History. In The Bomber Mafia, Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history.
 
Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists, the “Bomber Mafia,” asked: What if precision bombing could cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal?  
 
In contrast, the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in Japan cost thousands of civilian lives, but may have spared even more by averting a planned US invasion. In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell asks, “Was it worth it?”
 
Things might have gone differently had LeMay’s predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge. Hansell believed in precision bombing, but when he and Curtis LeMay squared off for a leadership handover in the jungles of Guam, LeMay emerged victorious, leading to the darkest night of World War II. The Bomber Mafia is a riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war.

Ratings and reviews

Basically, air power proponents were like surgeons ("cure anything and everything with a knife") and bombing proponents like neurosurgeons ("fixing God's mistakes and better than any other surgical branch"). Pretty much the history of how the military went from ground wars to air wars and theoretically narrowing the drop zones of bombs (pipe dreams). It is well researched and focuses on several specific mechanical engineers and physicists, especially those who appear lost to history. I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from Little, Brown and Company via NetGalley. Thank you.

A must read for Airmen, and those who wish to learn about the foundations of strategic bombing. Gladwell explains the difference between Air Force thinking vs the Army and Navy.

A stunning book told in typical Malcolm Gladwell style, giving a part of the history of how the philosophy and practicality of airpower bombing developed during WW II.

About the author

Malcom Gladwell is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers: The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, David and Goliath, Talking to Strangers, and The Bomber Mafia. He is also the cofounder of Pushkin Industries, an audiobook and podcast production company. He was born in England, grew up in rural Ontario, and now lives in New York.