Laboratory Warriors: How Allied Science and Technology Tipped the Balance in World War II

by Tom Shachtman

Book Overview

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 our future. While it is a widely accepted fact that America's development and employment of the atomic...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380816237
• ISBN13: 9780380816231
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Fabulous, even though incomplete

I don't have the other book referenced, but this is either not a retitling, or the reviews for the other book are horribly disingenuous. Don't expect the book to focus on the atomic bomb, it is looking at other areas where science shaped the war. The atomic bomb is of course the biggest example, but covering it sufficiently would take a whole book and leave out other things that had noticeable impact. I will warn that sometimes the author calls a chemist a physicist, and vice versa -- the two fields (particularly in atomic physics and chemistry) do overlap significantly, it is a forgivable mistake. Some other historians have commented on some examples that they say should have been included, but I think the point of this book was to cover lesser-known examples of how science impacted the war, so I am fine with leaving out some of what historians think are more well-known examples of impact. That said, this book is written so the lay person with only an interest in science (no formal training) can understand beyond the A-bomb how science impacted the war.