(audio book)

By Malcolm Gladwell

This 2021 book by well-known writer Malcolm Gladwell was first published as an audio book and then later as a print book. The book concerns bombing and air warfare in World War II. There was a group of American military officers who gathered in a remote location in Alabama to theorize and plan about bombing. This was in the early days of air warfare when the Air Force was still part of the U.S. Army. These military officers determined on a plan for strategic bombing or precision bombing as opposed to area bombing or carpet bombing. They wanted to save lives by not bombing civilian areas, but by bombing specific factories and key military installations that would end the war sooner.

When the war began, things did not go so well and at one crucial point the leader of the Bomber Mafia, Major General Haywood Hansell, was replaced by General Curtis LeMay. LeMay was behind the bombing of Tokyo and many other cities in Japan in World War II, which, along with the two atomic bombs, resulted in the surrender of Japan. The story is fascinating because Gladwell is quite the storyteller. He raises complicated ethical questions about bombing and warfare, while telling a riveting story.