The Pentagon's Brain
An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency
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The Pentagon's Brain
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Narrated by:
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Annie Jacobsen
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By:
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Annie Jacobsen
About this listen
Discover the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, in this Pulitzer Prize finalist from the author of the New York Times best seller Area 51.
No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times best-selling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain", from its Cold War inception in 1958 to the present.
This is the audiobook on DARPA - a compelling narrative about this clandestine intersection of science and the American military and the often frightening results.
©2015 Annie Jacobsen (P)2015 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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- By: Annie Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
- Length: 19 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,940
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,550
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,541
In the chaos following World War II, the US government faced many difficult decisions, including what to do with the Third Reich's scientific minds. These were the brains behind the Nazis' once-indomitable war machine. So began Operation Paperclip, a decades-long, covert project to bring Hitler's scientists and their families to the United States. Many of these men were accused of war crimes, and others had stood trial at Nuremberg; one was convicted of mass murder and slavery.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Osenberg list
- By Jean on 08-07-14
By: Annie Jacobsen
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Surprise, Kill, Vanish
- The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins
- By: Annie Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
- Length: 19 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,234
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,609
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Story5 out of 5 stars 4,593
From Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen, the untold story of the CIA's secret paramilitary units.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Lots of facts, offset by too much fiction
- By Steve M on 05-24-19
By: Annie Jacobsen
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Nuclear War
- A Scenario
- By: Annie Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,489
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,201
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,202
Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds’ notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have. Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Apocalyptic
- By Anonymous User on 04-12-24
By: Annie Jacobsen
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First Platoon
- A Story of Modern War in the Age of Identity Dominance
- By: Annie Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 535
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 468
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Story5 out of 5 stars 469
This is a story that starts off close and goes very big. The initial part of the story might sound familiar at first: it is about a platoon of mostly 19-year-old boys sent to Afghanistan, and an experience that ends abruptly in catastrophe. Their part of the story folds into the next: inexorably linked to those soldiers and never comprehensively reported before is the US Department of Defense’s quest to build the world’s most powerful biometrics database, with the ability to identify, monitor, catalog, and police people all over the world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An eye opener
- By Amazon Customer on 01-19-21
By: Annie Jacobsen
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Project MK-Ultra
- The History of the CIA’s Controversial Human Experimentation Program
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Colin Fluxman
- Length: 1 hr and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
Since the early days of human warfare, which may date back to the Stone Age, combatants have sought to gain an advantage through the acquisition of secret information. With the growth of technology, a parallel advantage was sought through the application of numerous types of torture. In the 19th century, the concept of manipulation was added to military tactics, an attempt to influence the minds of assassins, double agents, and world leaders alike to act against their natures.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Messi g with your mind
- By Ruth Valenzuela on 12-10-24
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Watermelon Syrup
- A Novel
- By: Annie Jacobsen, Jane Finlay-Young, Di Brandt
- Narrated by: Ryanne Chisholm
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Lexi, a young Mennonite woman from Saskatchewan, comes to work as housekeeper and nanny for a doctor’s family in Waterloo, Ontario, during the Depression. Dr. Gerald Oliver is a handsome philanderer who lives with his neurotic and alcoholic wife, Cammy, and their two children. Lexi soon adapts to modern conveniences, happily wears Cammy’s expensive cast off clothes, and is transformed from an innocent into a chic urban beauty. When Lexi is called home to Saskatchewan to care for her dying mother, she returns a changed person.
By: Annie Jacobsen, and others
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The Pentagon
- A History
- By: Steve Vogel
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 19 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 32
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 29
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Story5 out of 5 stars 29
The creation of the Pentagon in 17 whirlwind months during World War II is one of the great construction feats in American history, involving a tremendous mobilization of manpower, resources, and minds. The Pentagon's post-World War II history is told through its critical moments, including the troubled birth of the Department of Defense during the Cold War, the tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the tumultuous 1967 protest against the Vietnam War. The pivotal attack on September 11 is related with chilling new detail, as is the race to rebuild....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Motivational and complete
- By Eric G. on 02-02-23
By: Steve Vogel
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Hunting the Jackal
- A Special Forces and CIA Soldier's Fifty Years on the Frontlines of the War Against Terrorism
- By: Billy Waugh, Tim Keown
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,839
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,624
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,614
For more than half a century, Special Forces and CIA legend Billy Waugh dedicated his life to tracking down and eliminating America's most virulent enemies. Operating from the darkest shadows and most desolate corners of the world, he made his mark in many of the most important operations in the annals of US Spec Ops. He spent seven and a half years behind enemy lines in Vietnam as a member of a covert group of elite commandos.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Hunting the Jackal - epic accounting of SOF/SOG and CIA IV
- By Eric on 01-08-18
By: Billy Waugh, and others
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The Imagineers of War
- The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency That Changed the World
- By: Sharon Weinberger
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 123
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 108
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Story4 out of 5 stars 107
The definitive history of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon agency that has quietly shaped war and technology for nearly 60 years. Founded in 1958 in response to the launch of Sputnik, the agency's original mission was to create "the unimagined weapons of the future". Over the decades, DARPA has been responsible for countless inventions and technologies that extend well beyond military technology.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Blandly written story about DARPA politics
- By Syed on 04-18-17
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The Department of Mad Scientists
- Inside DARPA, the Path-Breaking Government Agency You've Never Heard Of
- By: Michael Belfiore
- Narrated by: Michael Belfiore
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 170
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 90
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Story4 out of 5 stars 92
The first-ever inside look at DARPA - the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - the maverick and controversial group whose futuristic work has had amazing civilian and military applications, from the Internet to GPS to driverless cars
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2 out of 5 stars
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meh
- By Patrick on 12-22-09
By: Michael Belfiore
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Command and Control
- Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety
- By: Eric Schlosser
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 20 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,173
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,866
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,856
Famed investigative journalist Eric Schlosser digs deep to uncover secrets about the management of America's nuclear arsenal. A groundbreaking account of accidents, near misses, extraordinary heroism, and technological breakthroughs, Command and Control explores the dilemma that has existed since the dawn of the nuclear age: How do you deploy weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them? That question has never been resolved - and Schlosser reveals how the combination of human fallibility and technological complexity still poses a grave risk to mankind.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A miracle that we escaped the Cold War alive....
- By A reader on 02-16-14
By: Eric Schlosser
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Kill Chain
- The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins
- By: Andrew Cockburn
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 174
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 147
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Story4 out of 5 stars 142
This essential, pause-resister narrative on the history of drone warfare by the acclaimed author of Rumsfeld explores how this practice emerged, who made it happen, and the real consequences of targeted killing.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Introduction
- By Batman on 03-24-15
By: Andrew Cockburn
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Operation Mockingbird
- The Controversial History of the CIA’s Efforts to Manipulate American Media Outlets
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Colin Fluxman
- Length: 1 hr and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10
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Story4 out of 5 stars 10
Freedom of the press isn’t just a fundamental right in America but a key part of the democratic process. When the United States secured its independence against Britain in the War of Independence in 1783, there was no certainty about what the new country would look like in terms of national governance. In 1787, delegates from the various states convened in Philadelphia to draft a constitution that would define this.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Limited
- By Cozz on 11-27-24
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The Devil's Chessboard
- Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government
- By: David Talbot
- Narrated by: Peter Altschuler
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,375
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,082
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,087
An explosive, headline-making portrait of Allen Dulles, the man who transformed the CIA into the most powerful - and secretive - colossus in Washington, from the founder of Salon.com and author of the New York Times best seller Brothers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Disturbing. Makes you question the company line.
- By KTS on 02-06-16
By: David Talbot
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Raven Rock
- The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself - While the Rest of Us Die
- By: Garrett M. Graff
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,302
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,166
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,156
A fresh window on American history: the eye-opening truth about the government's secret plans to survive a catastrophic attack on US soil, even if the rest of us die - a road map that spans from the dawn of the nuclear age to today.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Awesome Read!!
- By Brewer Richardson on 05-05-17
By: Garrett M. Graff
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Hidden History
- An Exposé of Modern Crimes, Conspiracies, and Cover-Ups in American Politics
- By: Donald Jeffries
- Narrated by: Lars Mikaelson
- Length: 18 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 375
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 332
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 329
The US government has spent half the time covering up conspiracies as it has spent helping the American people. In Hidden History, you will see the amount of effort over the past fifty years that our government has dedicated to lying and covering up the truth to the world. Starting with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Don Jeffries chronicles a wide variety of issues that have plagued our country's history.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good information with too much opinion.
- By humble on 12-29-19
By: Donald Jeffries
I still don't know Annie Jacobsen's politics
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a history of America's idea factory for military.
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Oscillating Objectivity
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Science, Bureaucracy and Politics
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Very, Very Informative Book
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Helpful History of Military Tech projects
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Excellent, very minor quibbles
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Can you trust the author?
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Simply great
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Would you consider the audio edition of The Pentagon's Brain to be better than the print version?
Yes, makes stuck in traffic a learning experience!What about Annie Jacobsen’s performance did you like?
The knowledge was great with good research. Almost wished it was longer!Great book!
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