Synopses & Reviews
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 bomb ended the Pacific struggle -- and that the failure of Hitler's scientists to develop their own A-bomb helped to doom Germany -- little has been made of the other remarkable scientific accomplishments of this dark and terrible epoch. Edifying, enthralling, startling, and sobering, Laboratory Warriors is a masterful work that sheds light on the technological achievements that swung the pendulum of victory in the Allies' direction.
Synopsis
Scientists and technologists played a larger part in World War II than in any previous conflict, yet their achievements that made the Allied victory possible have been overlooked, except for attention paid to the atomic bombs. The war was not fought solely between soldiers; it was also waged by engineers, physicists, chemists, and biologists who made crucial breakthroughs on both Allied and Axis sides, including jets, radar, ENIGMA, biological, chemical, and disease-fighting advances, all of which influenced the outcome of battles long before the atomic bombs were dropped.
Now Tom Shachtman, author of the classic The Phony War, 1939-1940, tells the whole story of the secret war -- a war deeply relevant to today's threats from electronic, chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.
About the Author
Tom Shachtman is the author of Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold, Around the Block, The Day America Crashed; The Phony War, 1939-1940; Edith and Woodrow, The Inarticulate Society, and Skyscraper Dreams. He lives in Connecticut.