Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base by Annie Jacobsen

May 03, 2013 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science, omyfckinggod8lbbabyjesusonapogostic, 2012

"Wow! It sure is hot in the desert. Hey, why does that rattle snake have two heads?"

"I can tell you……."

"Oh, hello…I didn‘t see you there, just talking to myself and the snake---s. I’m Stephanie, and who are you and what are you doing in the middle of the Mojave Desert?"

"I could ask you the same thing. I’m Annie Jacobson, I wrote a book about Area 51. It’s just over the hill there."

"The hill with the two Hummers on it? Hey, and there seems to be a couple guys with guns…..uh……pointing in our direc...more

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Jun 12, 2011 Djll rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pynchon, history, nonfiction

I was just listening to Terry Gross interview Jacobsen on Fresh Air, and what I heard has really blown my mind, and I don't use that term, ever. I am definitely going to get a hold of this book asap.

Jacobsen's final chapter of the book apparently concerns the 1947 Roswell alien-landing conspiracy theories. Being very secretive but convinced of her source's veracity, she said the crash was of a Soviet flying disc aircraft, inspired by or possibly directly designed by some German engineers, those...more

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May 23, 2013 Erik Graff rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Americans

Recommended to Erik by: Erik Badger

Shelves: history

A great deal has been written about the Nevada Test and Training Range, much of it disinformation, much of it rumor or nonsense. Jacobsen's Area 51, based in part on public record, in part on interviews, is an accessible and generally accurate history of the area and what has occurred there since 1951, all of it originally secret, much of it profoundly disquieting.

Running as a leit motif throughout the book is reference to what happened outside Roswell, NM in 1947, an event finally explained in...more A great deal has been written about the Nevada Test and Training Range, much of it disinformation, much of it rumor or nonsense. Jacobsen's Area 51, based in part on public record, in part on interviews, is an accessible and generally accurate history of the area and what has occurred there since 1951, all of it originally secret, much of it profoundly disquieting.

Running as a leit motif throughout the book is reference to what happened outside Roswell, NM in 1947, an event finally explained in the final chapter. Here, in a section based upon the alleged testimony of one informant trusted by the author, what has hitherto been a coherent narrative falls apart. Roswell, we are told, was indeed near the site of crashed disks, recovered along with bizarre bodies, two of them still barely alive, by the military. Neither the crafts nor their occupants were, however, extraterrestrial. Rather they had been made to appear that way. In fact, they were a psychops project of the Soviets based, like our own rocketry, upon Nazi science. This story, as Jacobsen relates it, cannot possibly be true.

First, according to all accounts I have encountered, the USSR had no capacity to fly to the SW USA in 1947. If these were Soviet craft, then they must have flown in from Mexico or the sea. Whatever the case, Jacobsen writes as if range were no problem, as if they travelled from Siberia, across North America, to our most sensitive military installations.

Second, if it were a Soviet psychops intended to emulate the panic-engendering Mercury Theatre broadcast of The War of the Worlds, why was Russian writing found on one of the craft and why were they crashed in such a remote area? Such being the case the only fear that would be engendered would be in the hearts of the U.S. military leadership, fear of technological inferiority and perhaps of the perversity of the communist adversary.

Third, if the Soviets actually did have flying disks capable of evading radar detection and of traversing US airspace, why didn't they just use them like we used the U2? If the intention was to spy, then the crashes broke the secrecy and tended to defeat the purpose. Surely, if spying was the intention, then the crashes must have been accidents, but Jacobsen doesn't discuss this possibility.

Fourth, if the extraordinary disks and the bizarre creatures in them were actually the result of developments in Nazi science, how come these engineering and biological breakthroughs saw so little use or development? The German Horten prototypes pictured in the book are nowhere represented as being capable of the antics the New Mexico disks are reported to have achieved. Further, the surgical alteration of children--a practice the informant claims the USA went on to emulate--would seem to serve no practical purpose whatsoever, except perhaps the psychops one discounted above.

One could go on--and one suspects Stanton Friedman, the Roswell expert, will.

Yet, despite the thoughtless, self-contradictory sensationalism of the author's concluding chapter, the rest of Area 51 is recommended.
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May 19, 2011 Dave rated it 1 of 5 stars

Area 51 is a very odd book. On the one hand, much of it is a sane, grounded history of the installation's key role in Cold War nuclear testing and spy-plane R&D, full of previously undisclosed information based on declassified records and dozens of interviews with people who worked there.

Jacobsen sticks to that sensible course for about 90 percent of the book. But the other 10 percent is kind of, well, nuts. Things get weird when she links Area 51 to the Roswell incident. Based on a single,...more

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Jun 20, 2011 Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars

I heard an interview with Jacobsen on Fresh Air which intrigued me. Then I got a sample chapter to see if it held up to a critical reading, and I was hooked.

If all you know about Area 51 is the alien/spaceship wacko thing, then you can be forgiven for thinking that is what this is about. Rather, this investigative reporter examines the secret, "black operations" that have gone on here since the beginning of the Cold War. And what has piqued my interest the most is her detailed account of how the...more

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Jul 09, 2011 Scott Gilbert rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, history

UFO and conspiracy books are a particularly guilty pleasure of mine. I believe nothing, but am entertained and thrilled by all of it. Jacobsen didn't fail me in this regard. She has piled up a fast, heated history of Area 51 and the elements of the "Military-Industrial Complex" which bred the secret base (and its matching mystery installations around the world and country). Much related here must be true, and most of it is quite reasonable and revelatory (stolen technologies, blundering atom bom...more

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Dec 19, 2011 Tony rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction-general

AREA 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base. (2011). Annie Jacobsen. **.
I made it halfway through this recent book and stopped. There were just too many factual errors that I was able to catch that affected my credibility about anything else the author might have to say about her subject. Her claim to fame for this book was that she was able to interview nineteen people who actually worked at or for Area 51 – people who were willing to share information with her not oth...more AREA 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base. (2011). Annie Jacobsen. **.
I made it halfway through this recent book and stopped. There were just too many factual errors that I was able to catch that affected my credibility about anything else the author might have to say about her subject. Her claim to fame for this book was that she was able to interview nineteen people who actually worked at or for Area 51 – people who were willing to share information with her not otherwise availabe to the public. Unfortunately, there was no way to corroborate any of their testimony, since each provided different sets of information. In her notes to the text, she admits that that was the case for most, if not all, of her informants. That Area 51 exists is a fact. That the Area was used to develop spy planes and to train their pilots is also a fact. That, further, the Area was used as a testing site for nuclear weapons is also a fact. All of these facts were known before. It is when she gets off to saying that the base was the home of alien investigations that I have trouble with suspending my disbelief. Many of the factual errors I found in the text should be obvious to even the casual non-science-trained reader. She starts off with the radio broadcast in 1938 of H. G. Welles’ “War of the Worlds.” The panic it caused in the populace, she felt, led to the sensitization of the average man to technology that he could not understand. She cites jet engines, radar and the microwave oven developed during WW II. As I understand it, mostly by checking “Google”, jet engines were being developed during WW II mostly by Britain and Germany, but were still unknown in the U.S. Radar was still experimental and was shrouded in great secrecy by its developers in Britain and the U.S. Apparently, Germany was not aware of the advances being made by the Allies in this technology. Microwave ovens were a product of post WW II – the heating effects of microwaves were not discovered until 1945. There is the anectode about one of the scientists working on the technology who found that a chocolate bar in his pocket melted when he walked by a microwave generating device. I don’t know if that’s true, but most of us have heard the story. The author also tells us that UFO-like craft were developed by the Russians as a result of their stealing German scientists from Germany at the end of the War. This is backed up by her report from one of her informants that Russian printing was found on suspect pieces of such a spacecraft in Roswell. There are loads of misinformation like this scattered throughout the half of the book that I managed to get through. Someone should have done some fact checking prior to the release of this book.
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Aug 09, 2011 Lawrence added it

This is both a welcome and wonderful addition to the burgeoning literature on US Cold War national security policies and activities. It is welcomed as the first comprehensive and serious history of Area 51 based on interviews with all manner of people who worked under its cloaked shadow: from aerospace engineers, base commanders, test pilots, radar technicians, nuclear test engineers, CIA employees, security officers and contractors. While confronting every major controversial and conspiratorial...more

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Jan 12, 2013 SPL120 rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, politics, science

Not about UFOs or, for that matter, so-called conspiracies: not in the way you may be thinking.

Get past chapter one and you'll find 51 springs from U.S. government-sanctioned activity in the bowels of administrations since WWII, which have had limited access to and control over much of what happens there by the "powers" that lord over the Area simply invoking need-to-know privileges -- and we discover our presidents and Congress are not exempt.

The earth-shattering science of the Manhattan Projec...more

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Oct 27, 2012 Phillip rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: popular-culture

A reader who is interested in the role of Area-51 to conspiracy theories about the alien wreckage from Roswell, New Mexico will be able to add this book to their collection of history on the subject. Also, X-files aficionados can enjoy the book as a very good example of the kind of UFO literature that has been around for decades and that inspires television producers like Chris Carter. Either way, it is a great read.

I fall into the second category of reader. I was intrigued to see a fat book on...more A reader who is interested in the role of Area-51 to conspiracy theories about the alien wreckage from Roswell, New Mexico will be able to add this book to their collection of history on the subject. Also, X-files aficionados can enjoy the book as a very good example of the kind of UFO literature that has been around for decades and that inspires television producers like Chris Carter. Either way, it is a great read.

I fall into the second category of reader. I was intrigued to see a fat book on Area-51 in the military history section of my local bookstore. It looked like the rest of the books in the section, but a quick look confirmed my assumption that the target audience was for readers interested in alien conspiracy theories.

The book opens with 18 pages about Bob Lazar, the man who blew the whistle on Area-51 in 1989 by giving a radio interview in which he described his role, at the base, doing reverse engineering on an alien craft. Following, in the book, is a brief description of the 1947 events at Roswell, New Mexico that would give Area-51 its wreckage in 1951. The book ends with a reveal about the nature of the alien craft and its living occupants. The entire book is nicely laid out to provide hints at and prepares the way for the reveal at the end of the book.

But the majority of the book is not about aliens from other planets or their crashed craft. The body of the book is a journalistic (as opposed to academic) presentation of how Area-51 came to be the most secret place in the United States. First, atomic bombs were exploded in the area as part of research to find out the physical consequences of such explosions. Second, the CIA and Air Force took advantage of that secrecy to develop and test spy planes.

I read reviews of the book that claimed family members of the interviewees would have been happy with it if it had left the last chapter out. Their feeling was the alien-craft reveal demeaned the story, finally being told, about the sacrifice and important work done, by their loved ones, at Area-51 for national defense.

It is a legitimate criticism. In fact, since the majority of the book is about atomic and spy plane experimentation, focus upon the claims of Bob Lazar weaken the credibility of the larger narrative.

However, the author never claimed the book was anything other than journalism. She interviewed the people she could find, confirmed what she could, and wrote the story in good conscience and to the best of her considerable ability.

For my part, It doesn't really matter to me that it isn't the book it sets out to be, which would have described reverse engineering programs of alien craft at Area-51. And it isn't the other thing it is presented as in the bookstore, a military history. I was happy with the narrative because it fills the hole of saying something about a place we hear about in popular culture. (less)

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Oct 18, 2012 Omar Leal rated it 3 of 5 stars

Ultimately, much like the subject of the book, it is hard to come to a conclusion about the ultimate value and meaning of this book. I think the author has come as close as anyone to finding out what "really" happened in Area 51 but at the same time the book was strangely unfulfilling. The best analogy I can think of is a really good joke being told by someone with less than stellar timing, that leaves you wondering what might have been, rather than satisfied. And this is coming from some one wh...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: military-government, nonfiction, favorites

: I am by nature a very nosy person. I am also incredibly skeptical of groups of humanoids with more than their fair share of power (in this case, our beloved government). Prone as I am to juicy conspiracy theories, it is no surprise that this behemoth book claiming to reveal the deepest, darkest secrets of Area 51 called to me- it has “nosy conspiracy theorist” written all over it!

And Annie Jacobsen delivered. An incredibly talented national security journalist, Jacobsen put her sweet investig...more : I am by nature a very nosy person. I am also incredibly skeptical of groups of humanoids with more than their fair share of power (in this case, our beloved government). Prone as I am to juicy conspiracy theories, it is no surprise that this behemoth book claiming to reveal the deepest, darkest secrets of Area 51 called to me- it has “nosy conspiracy theorist” written all over it!

And Annie Jacobsen delivered. An incredibly talented national security journalist, Jacobsen put her sweet investigative skills into action and accessed information about Area 51 that has been hidden in dusty classified files for more than half a century. The details she reveals in this book, however, left me feeling fundamentally conflicted. The nerdy part of me (admittedly a rather large part…) reveled in the awe-inspiring scientific achievements that were made in a remote corner of the hot, dry, and perpetually dusty state of Nevada. Every other page included some invention or scientific breakthrough worthy of a “Look at this, random stranger sitting next to me on the bus, how AWESOME is this reconnaissance plane?!”

As freakishly cool the drones and spy jets may be, however, the ethical part of me had some pretty alarming reactions to some of Area 51’s more controversial (*cough* completely immoral and utterly criminal *cough*) activities. I’m ok with developing cool new planes. I am NOT COOL with refusing to clean up your plutonium spills, practicing unethical human subject experiments reminiscent of Nazi Germany, nor creating virtual immunity from the democratic process for a select group of powerful, aggressive, and less than responsible men with unregulated access to nuclear weaponry.

I mean really, folks. In an age where our international conflicts could very realistically evolve into a Star Wars-esque destruction of the entire planet, should we really be ok with a group of the most brilliant (and possibly the most destructive) minds creating weapons and war behind a veil of total and utter secrecy? If we continue down this road, the good ‘ol boys are going to kill us all. Literally.

Of course, everyone and their mother doesn’t have to know— I do realize that some secrets are kept for legitimate purposes. But it’s pretty clear that there needs to be some regulation and oversight here. And most definitely some women!

Thank you, Annie Jacobsen for a fresh new dose of paranoia! Truly, the book was riveting.(less)

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Aug 14, 2012 Randy Auxier rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-non-fiction

I don’t know. I mean that. According to Annie Jacobsen, that’s because I don’t “have a need to know.” Probably no phrase is repeated quite as often (in any book I have ever read) as that phrase in this book. It’s forgivable. Jacobsen explains how this concept of the “need to know” has safeguarded information since the Manhattan Project. If this book has a thesis, it is: It’s bad to have government agencies operating wholly beyond the reach of reasonable oversight.

Apparently, even the President,...more I don’t know. I mean that. According to Annie Jacobsen, that’s because I don’t “have a need to know.” Probably no phrase is repeated quite as often (in any book I have ever read) as that phrase in this book. It’s forgivable. Jacobsen explains how this concept of the “need to know” has safeguarded information since the Manhattan Project. If this book has a thesis, it is: It’s bad to have government agencies operating wholly beyond the reach of reasonable oversight.

Apparently, even the President, in Bill Clinton’s case, didn’t “have a need to know” and was denied access to the records he and his commission demanded back in 1994. This calls to mind Rumsfeld’s famous line about “unknown unknowns.” There is stuff so secret that no one knows about it, and they don’t know they don’t know it, because no one needs to. And that’s why I don’t know. If you are catching the scent of a circular argument, I like your nose. Area 51 is a mass of such skunkworks, partly because it reports on agencies that reason in this way (Rumsfeld’s cronies understood him perfectly), and partly because the book itself isn’t above the same doublespeak.

Jacobsen’s bad guys keep changing their name: the Manhattan Project, the Atomic Energy Commission, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Department of Energy, and finally the National Nuclear Security Administration. But it’s the same clandestine bunch of Skull-and-Bones-ers, and they are above the law. These are the real-life equivalents of the Cigarette Smoking Man from the X Files. They don’t like you and they don’t care if you like them. They have a job to do and you wouldn’t understand. So unless you want to become an involuntary test subject, you’ll mind your own business.

I am not a frequent consumer of this genre –don’t read the skeptics and don’t read the believers. I learned about conspiracy theories from a Mel Gibson movie. But it was either this or Rumsfeld’s memoir (I was looking for some amusing fiction). So I may be naïve about it, but to me, this book is neither fish nor fowl. It is written in the netherworld between journalism and history (where much quickly-forgotten crap is piled). There is a lot of historical research here, but documented like journalism. (No serious historian will ever cite this book.) Like an investigative reporter, Jacobsen avoids editorializing except in a few key places. She doesn’t like it when the government explodes “dirty bombs” above ground (she seems neutral on other testing), and she doesn’t like the deal the US government made with former Nazi scientists, and she especially doesn’t like human experimentation without consent. Pretty daring, huh?

The book is neither left nor right. There is the grim necessity of defending the Free World coupled with the wagging finger at how much is spent and wasted on crazy projects. My favorite among these is Project “Acoustic Kitty,” when the CIA put “electronic listening devices in house cats. But that project also backfired after too many cats strayed from their missions in search of food. One acoustic kitty got run over by a car.” (p. 347) Your tax dollars at work. But hey, would you rather be speaking Russian? OK, don’t answer that. I wish I could say that putting easy targets in the crosshairs is a virtue in this book, but it’s probably more a marketing decision. Why alienate half of your potential readers when, with calculated cowardice, you can pander to almost all of them?

In addition to being neither history nor journalism, and neither right nor left, the book is also neither a part of the skeptical literature nor of the conspiracy literature. Jacobsen knows she will be called a believer by the skeptics and a skeptic by the believers. Nobody who already has a firm opinion about the major topics will like this book. But that isn’t the intended audience. This book is for gullible, curious schmucks like me. The scientists don’t like Jacobsen’s inept science reporting, but I am unable to identify her errors. The UFOlogists will be disappointed that she doesn’t believe in aliens (she explains away most of their cherished sightings and effectively dismisses the rest), but most people have never met a UFOlogist. Skeptics might follow her for a while. Yet, Jacobsen’s theory about the Roswell incident (which she saves for the end of the book) is a knee-slapper, even for the naïve. It’s less probable than the idea of an alien craft. If any skeptics were quietly taking her seriously up to that point, they’ll be disclaiming it by the end.

I will now spoil the book, since that is my job (and you don’t want to read this book anyway). It turns out that the Roswell incident was –and get this—a plot by the Russians to spread hysteria in the US. How? First, Stalin got a nascent technology from the Nazis after the war, from some rocket scientists named Walter and Reimar Horten. They designed these stealthy “flying wings” which Jacobsen keeps describing as “disc-like.” Yeah, sure. If a boomerang looks like a saucer to you, you’re ripe for the rest of this story. So these flying wings are small and they don’t really work yet, but Stalin has noticed the hysteria from the 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast, and he gets this idea. He will take some small, deformed children that Dr. Josef Mengele has created during a brief sojourn in the USSR, youngsters with large heads and big eyes, and he’ll put some of these in a couple of Horten wings and crash them on purpose near some top secret US military bases. The goal? Hysteria. Disorder. Paranoid capitalists. (Sounds rather like a normal week on Wall Street.)

Just how all this was done remains rather vague, but yes, you heard right. Jacobsen claims there really were odd-looking little beings in odd-looking little craft that really crashed at Roswell, but they were Russians, sort of, or maybe Jews or Gypsies or some other flotsam from the death camps. There are a lot of holes in Jacobsen’s story, but I’ll let you find them yourself. She had a “source” for this yarn, an old engineer who worked at Area 51 in the early 50s, reverse engineering these Horten wings. Apparently we don’t have a need to know his name. As far as I can tell, the Truth isn’t Out There.
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Jun 22, 2012 April rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book and one other is the reason that I canceled my membership to Quality Paperback Books. They have a subscription program that sends two books every month to each member, books the member must then pay for, unless the member cancels the order in time. QPB sends a notice every time they do this, and I normally cancel the order once I get the notice, but I never got the notice for this book or the one that shipped with it. So ... it was sent to me with the other book, and rather than go thr...more This book and one other is the reason that I canceled my membership to Quality Paperback Books. They have a subscription program that sends two books every month to each member, books the member must then pay for, unless the member cancels the order in time. QPB sends a notice every time they do this, and I normally cancel the order once I get the notice, but I never got the notice for this book or the one that shipped with it. So ... it was sent to me with the other book, and rather than go through the trouble of sending them back and waiting for QPB to credit my account, I paid for the books and canceled my membership, said good riddance to QPB's paperback print books (I'm mostly digital now anyway) and their quaint subscription program.

In short, I never would have bought this book for myself ... not even considered buying it.

It was a serendipitous buy, however, as it turned out that I liked the book. I thought at first that it would be about all the alien urban legends associated with Area 51, all those myths perpetuated by movies, novels, and TV shows. I thought it would be one of those books written by one of those strident conspiracy theorists who would find evidence to support their theories in toothpaste. I thought it would be rife with speculation and innuendos, implied accusations and just plain quackery. How glad I was to be so wrong.

The book is about actual top secret stuff from the military and the CIA, classified government stuff that were hidden from the public for generations — secrets about fighter planes, spy planes, weapons, tests, and the like — many of which are declassified now, of course, but described in great depth and detail in a very factual, credible way, with no exaggeration or hype. The author has done her research well and widely, and yet many of the stories are told in such a compelling and exciting narrative form, you can tell even before you read about it in the author's note that she heavily interviewed the people who worked at Area 51.

I read this book to my fiancé who is well versed in a lot having to do with the military, and he and his family have had some kind of security clearance at some point in their lives. That he was impressed by this book should say something. A lot of the information in the book confirmed what he already knew, and he found no fault or error in the subjects on which he was already familiar. On top of that, he learned a lot that he didn't already know. This book actually gave him some insight to things he might have only suspected or dreamed.

I was surprised by how much I liked it, given that the subject isn't one that particularly interests me. In fact, there were times I was a little bored by some of the dry military jargon. The individuals' stories were nicely done, though, and I was shocked by all the top secret stuff itself. I would rate it a three, and I think, based on his reaction to the book, my fiancé would rate it a five. So, for Goodreads, I'm averaging it out and giving it a four.

The photos were nice, and the index was long — it probably took about 1/4 or 1/5 of the book itself. Hefty book, but jam-packed with good stuff.(less)

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May 19, 2012 Will Hinds rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's rare I give up on a book, especially an audiobook. But I just can't keep doing this to myself. This book is ludicrous. The notion of aliens and flying saucers is hokey, but to a degree, interesting. Presenting the stories of conspiracy theorists as truth? Ridiculous. The book turned around for a little while, discussing the development of the U-2 spy plane, but after doing some fact checking, those stories aren't accurate either. It's not that I fact-checked because I have no faith in the a...more

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Feb 21, 2012 Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars

So we have a new book on Area 51, the non-existent military base in Nevada. Where, supposedly, alines are held and flying saucers ripped apart to discover how the work. I'm honestly surprised they didn;t bring Area 51 into the Transformer movies.

Anyhow, I thought this was a good book. It would have been a great book if it had been touted as a thriller. The spy plane days, with the U-2 and Oxcart, SR-71's cousin, were excellent and I really enjoyed reading those parts. The rest of it, for the mos...more

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Dec 22, 2011 Marc Weitz rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is not the Area 51 book for those of you who wear tin foil on your head. Written by a real reporter for the LA Times Magazine, this book examines fact-based accounts of Area 51. Mainly this book explains that all the crazy alien and UFO stories were the development and testing of advanced planes such as the U-2 and the SR-71 Blackbird. We know these planes exist today, but it understandable that when these planes were being developed top-secretly in the 1950's and 1960's, a plane like the B...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Eeg added it

I also was one of those who became intrigued after catching a piece of the "fresh air" Terry Gross interview. Terry alluded that ms. Jacobsen’s book ending appeared somewhat outrageous (and indeed terry did laugh). Terry asked her to speak about the ending briefly. A quick library search of ms jacobsen informed me that she did indeed have some credentials... (terror in the sky not withstanding) and so I gave it a shot.

The very first indications that something might not be right, ( I bought the a...more I also was one of those who became intrigued after catching a piece of the "fresh air" Terry Gross interview. Terry alluded that ms. Jacobsen’s book ending appeared somewhat outrageous (and indeed terry did laugh). Terry asked her to speak about the ending briefly. A quick library search of ms jacobsen informed me that she did indeed have some credentials... (terror in the sky not withstanding) and so I gave it a shot.

The very first indications that something might not be right, ( I bought the audio version, unabridged) were the following:

SHE DID THE ENTIRE READING/RECORDING HERSELF! this sent up read flags ..
but I still gave it the old college try..

She began immediately trying to convince (us or herself?) that this was a real book of facts, not fictional, real live sources who lived and worked at area 51, at least 32 of them she interviewed personally etc etc. So the, “this is not fiction, believe me, I’m trying to be credible”…. Stance, wears thin almost immediately.

Then it gets worse, mispronunciations of common words... i.e.: Comparta – mentalized, for compartmentalized, wedder for whether, and minusha- ee – for minutiae, were laugh out loud funny.

There were also insertions of emotions supposedly felt by those clandestine agents and scientists (and their families) she was allegedly there it would seem. How could she know that? Did she sleep in their bedrooms? Unprofessional.

Her naïveté in believing blindly that the men who supplied her with what she deemed factual historical data, had to be the truth, just because they said so. Just because she was special? She states in the book that misinformation and disinformation are the secret agency’s hallmarks. What makes her think they’d then dish it all out to her? and Factually?

Lastly, if I ever hear the term “need to know” again, I may have to kill someone. Yes, she uses it that much.

I had wanted to quickly get to the end of her book, because I wanted to know about the “child sized aviators – big eyed, big headed alien like deformed humans, the disk crashing, Roswell, and Stalin – Horten bros. etc.

On I pushed listening during my daily commute, determined to glean interesting and unknown facts about area 51, the CIA, NASA, ARPA, and any other clandestine agencies served up by “factual accounts”.

At book end, I was forced to admit it was no more than tabloid, money hungry journalism at best. I really tried, but no matter how I attempted to remind myself that “ We were reading words set down by a serious and credentialed NY Times best selling author”, really? I couldn’t not laugh, it was so ... so...... ridiculous! who gave her the idea she could write? even her voice is annoying! (less)

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Oct 24, 2011 Jonathan Hutchins rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Right up to the last chapter this was really interesting, detailed and plausible. Time brings many secrets to light, either through lapse from their secret status, in response to direct FOI requests, or when a witness decides to spill the beans, and the biggie here is saved till last. Jacobsen is interesting in her accounts of the U-2 and A-12 ('Oxcart') projects, especially the power struggles over control of the latter. She has no time for the reality of UFOs, but we are invited to consider th...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars

A fun read that is for the most part quite credible. Most of the book details the history of Area 51 and America's efforts to built stealth aircraft. Starting with the U2 and then the SR-71 the author details the success and failures along the path to building state-of-the-art aircraft. There is quite allot of interesting material on testing, flying and crashing these aircraft that will thrill anyone interested in the subject. Finally the book takes us to current events and Area 51's role in dev...more

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Oct 11, 2011 Dean rated it 4 of 5 stars

For a book on Area 51, this one is incredibly well researched and documented. I'd be a liar if I said I checked up on even a small fraction of the citations, but still I'm convinced Annie Jacobsen really did her homework on this one. I also like that the book talks about the aspects of Area 51 that can be seen to have had a noticeable impact on our world. Sure, the dry lake bed of Groom Lake could hold a giant underground alien research facility. It's tough to see how that affects our daily live...more

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Oct 11, 2011 Kerfe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Remember how your parents would never let you use "but everyone else is doing it" as justification for questionable behavior? Our government agencies love that reason!

How can it be that even the President is denied access to certain information? I'm not sure what to call it, but it is not a democracy. And it means no one's really either admitting to or taking responsibility for their behavior, which is the most frightening revelation of all.

I can't exactly say I recommend this book. But the info...more

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Oct 10, 2011 Thad rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jacobsen, a national security reporter for the LA Times, spends much of the book demystifying Area 51, using exhaustive research to show that it was the key testing ground for everything from nukes to the SR-71 Blackbird to today's drones. Then she drops a theory on the Roswell crash that's nothing short of revolutionary: it all was a Soviet psy ops mission designed to freak the American people out and make them distrust the government (if so, it sure as hell worked).

It sounds far-fetched at fir...more Jacobsen, a national security reporter for the LA Times, spends much of the book demystifying Area 51, using exhaustive research to show that it was the key testing ground for everything from nukes to the SR-71 Blackbird to today's drones. Then she drops a theory on the Roswell crash that's nothing short of revolutionary: it all was a Soviet psy ops mission designed to freak the American people out and make them distrust the government (if so, it sure as hell worked).

It sounds far-fetched at first, but here are a few of the elements of the theory (some, it must be noted, are from a single source who was an engineer at Area 51, where the Roswell "UFO" was allegedly taken):
- parts of the inside of the craft that crashed at Roswell had Cyrillic lettering
- during WWII, German aviation engineers had developed several planes that looked like flying-saucers; at the end of the war, the US and Soviet Union had raced to track down the top Nazi scientists and recruit them. Her theory is that the Soviets got the engineers who had made the saucer-like planes, or least at the blueprints.
- the "aliens" in the crashed Roswell craft? Her theory is they were children who were the victims of human experiments, like the Nazis' (and maybe by ex-Nazi doctors working for the Russians), to make them look like otherworldly beings.
- but could children have piloted the craft(s)? No, they were probably on autopilot or remote-control, she suggests.
- why would Stalin have sent the ships towards Roswell? Because that was the site of the U.S.'s first post-WWII nuclear tests in 1946, which Moscow would have seen as a betrayal.
- where would the "UFO" planes have been launched from under this theory? Probably Siberia, and then they'd fly over the Pacific Northwest. Why is that relevant? Well, the first two major UFO sightings of the modern era were in Washington State and Idaho ... during the 2 weeks before the Roswell crash in 1947.

Anyway, it's worth a read, especially for anyone interested in Cold War military history, secrecy/transparency, and of course, the UFO phenomenon. Again, most of the book is about Area 51 as the testing ground for various weapons/aircraft, and she does a good job weaving various individuals' stories in amongst the declassified documents to paint a picture of what working there must have been like. In Jacobsen's telling, Area 51 keeps popping up and having a role in one major US foreign policy event after another.

Back to the UFO's: I think her theory is probably right. I would not be shocked if subsequent releases validate it, and 10 or 20 years from now, we look back at this book as the turning point. Our Cold War enemy launching a fake alien invasion makes a lot more sense than the "weather balloon" story or aliens actually visiting us (but never crashing or leaving any evidence ever again), anyway. The Alien Astronauts dude better start looking for a new gig.(less)

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Sep 06, 2011 cat rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: 100-in-2011

2011 Book 95/100

I read the first 180 or so pages of the book and wondered if I could continue - largely because the information contained in that first 180 pages was only moderately engaging historical data about the secret, "black operations" that have gone on at Area 51 since the beginning of the Cold War - the development of reconnaissance and combat planes by both the CIA and Air Force (with little to no governmental oversight, by the by). The U-2, then the A-12 / SR-71 were both developed t...more 2011 Book 95/100

I read the first 180 or so pages of the book and wondered if I could continue - largely because the information contained in that first 180 pages was only moderately engaging historical data about the secret, "black operations" that have gone on at Area 51 since the beginning of the Cold War - the development of reconnaissance and combat planes by both the CIA and Air Force (with little to no governmental oversight, by the by). The U-2, then the A-12 / SR-71 were both developed there, as was the F117 'Stealth Fighter'. In addition, Area 51 is part of the Nevada Testing Site and as such, many nuclear weapons tests were completed there and in the immediately surrounding area -- up to the early 1990's according to the author.

All of that makes sense -- and some of the discussion of the ways that testing new combat/spy planes could trigger UFO reportings from civilians made a whole lot of sense out of the intrigue surrounding Area 51 and it's purported alien connections. And then. Well, about 1/2 way or more into the book, the author lost me completely. Not out of boredom but out of sheer incredulity and disbelief. WHAM! Straight from a well-researched history of an incredibly secret government weapons development area in Nevada to, well, to a single-person account of some crazy explanation of the Roswell incident that involves... oh, here just read what a fellow Goodreader, Dave, had to say about it:

" Jacobsen sticks to that sensible course for about 90 percent of the book. But the other 10 percent is kind of, well, nuts. Things get weird when she links Area 51 to the Roswell incident. Based on a single, unidentified source, she spins a truly amazing tale involving a super-duper-hi-tech remote-control stealth Soviet flying saucer developed at Stalin's behest, designed by a couple of ex-Luftwaffe aeronautical-whiz brothers, and manned by "child-size aviators" who were "biologically and/or surgically reengineered children" created by…fugitive Nazi doctor Josef Mengele! "

Yep.And that is why the last pages of this book shall remain unread. Because as soon as she delved into that much crazy, I was unable to continue, and in fact, slammed the (sizeable) book shut and returned it to the library the next day. (less)

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Aug 31, 2011 D Books rated it 3 of 5 stars

I listened to the audio book version and heard the words "classified" and "need-to-know" used by the author one too many times. I am pleased she DID NOT take the "aliens at 51" approach to her book and really made more sense of what was being tested (new (aircraft) technology and nuclear testing) at the site. After completing the book you will not feel like Area 51 is all that mysterious and it is quite common for our government as well of other foreign governments to need to have some secluded...more

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Aug 29, 2011 Rick rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a pretty great book. Primarily, the challenges with it are in the editing - the arrangement and flow of the information the author gleaned in her endlessly fascinating research and interview process. It had its genesis as an article in the LA Times, apparently, which is interesting because it sort of reads as an anthology of articles strung together, not just one, extended one. You know. One of those books where the same little background information or anecdotes appear throughout, beca...more This was a pretty great book. Primarily, the challenges with it are in the editing - the arrangement and flow of the information the author gleaned in her endlessly fascinating research and interview process. It had its genesis as an article in the LA Times, apparently, which is interesting because it sort of reads as an anthology of articles strung together, not just one, extended one. You know. One of those books where the same little background information or anecdotes appear throughout, because originally it was written as if people might only read one of the articles, but when it's strung together, it seems a bit repetitive. There are larger organizational/editing challenges as well, primarily with the source of her information of her more fantastical claims at the end of the book. Jacobsen seems a dilligent researcher, and because the single source for the Roswell information could not be verified externally, she presents it outside of the narrative of the rest of the book, in a different manner. This got me thinking. It's kind of interesting. Of COURSE there are editing problems when reporting on something so endlessly secret, compartmentalized and need-to-know. In a way, the book almost reflects the secrecy practices of Area 51 itself. It also reminds me of the three blind men and the elephant. While some of the interview subjects were high level, many were not, and their perspective into Area 51 - even if they were there 30 years - was compartmentalized.

Still though. An insanely interesting read, even if you aren't a conspiracy theorist. Worth it just for the trivia. Did you know the guy who ran the Manhattan Project founded Reytheon? That the E in EG&G Is the same guy who made that awesome photo of a bullet going through an apple? That the reason Obama relies on drones so much more than Bush did is because the bulk of our drone fleet came online in the last weeks of Bush's presidency? That The CIA asked if they could assassinate Bin Laden before 9/11 with a Predator and the State Department blocked it? That there's a layer of dead bugs flying around the world 80,000 feet in the air from the nuclear tests of the 40's? That we almost went to war with Korea in the middle of the Vietnam war? That Top Gun sprung from the research we did on a stolen Mig fighter? Crazy crazy crazy.

More than anything, though, you come away totally terrified of the things our government does in our name, and a profound realization how hopeless the military industrial complex situation really is. (less)

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Jul 31, 2011 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars

An amazing, informative read. Jacobsen does a fantastic job of reporting facts (which appear to be impeccably researched) and telling the stories of various major projects which occurred in Area 51. The politics and development of the SR-71, U-2, space policy, nuclear policy and practices, how all that affected the cold war are all in here, as well as a (semi) credible story behind the Roswell crash.

Jacobsen avoids engaging in conspiracy theories and instead explains all the topics as a good jou...more

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Jul 31, 2011 Greg rated it 5 of 5 stars

Five stars because there won't be another book like it. Even if someone somehow dredges up even more, deeper secrets, it will only be building on and because of Annie Jacobsen's work.
Sure, it helped a little that I was halfway through re-watching season 4 of the X-Files when e brought this one home. But most of the book is about aerial espionage and nuclear testing, so don't get your Lone Gunmen all excited. Of course, it's a lot of pretty incredible, well-written, dramatic first-hand accounts o...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Aaron rated it 2 of 5 stars

Early on, I was going to give this book 4 stars. The opening chapters are exciting and while they may or may not be true, they inspire a sense of the mystery that has surrounded Area 51.

Unfortunately, the wheels begin to come off in the middle of the book.

(view spoiler)...more Early on, I was going to give this book 4 stars. The opening chapters are exciting and while they may or may not be true, they inspire a sense of the mystery that has surrounded Area 51.

Unfortunately, the wheels begin to come off in the middle of the book.

(view spoiler)

For what could have been and what ended up being: 2 stars.(less)

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Jun 25, 2011 Joe rated it 2 of 5 stars

I so wanted to like this book. Really, I did. I heard about it on the radio -- a normally-staid public radio interview show host was talking to the author. At first, Jacobsen was talking about the history of advanced aircraft development and testing that happened out there in the desert; that's the part of Area 51's history I was familiar with. By itself, it's fascinating. The SR-71, developed there, was literally generations ahead of other aircraft.

After the author talked about that, she went i...more I so wanted to like this book. Really, I did. I heard about it on the radio -- a normally-staid public radio interview show host was talking to the author. At first, Jacobsen was talking about the history of advanced aircraft development and testing that happened out there in the desert; that's the part of Area 51's history I was familiar with. By itself, it's fascinating. The SR-71, developed there, was literally generations ahead of other aircraft.

After the author talked about that, she went into the history of nuclear tests done in that area. I was familiar with some of the nuclear bombs that were tested outside of Las Vegas, but I didn't really have good knowledge of the connection between the different programs. At that point, I figured this was a book I had to read. I had hopes that it would be a classic, discussing secretive US government programs, based on interviews with insiders and thoroughly-researched documentation -- something like "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Rhodes or "Puzzle Palace", about the National Security Agency, by Bamford.

Finally, the author started talking about the most fantastical aspects of this book, and the parts that are generating the most publicity for this book. She said that part of her research involved an interview with someone that had worked on the most secret of programs out at Area 51. This engineer, she continued, was someone that had intimate knowledge of military programs, someone whose involvement in Area 51 was vouched for by unimpeachable sources. Jacobsen said that she didn't have independent confirmation for what he told her, but she believed him. She couldn't present his information in the same way of the rest of the book, that contained info that could be independently verified, so she put wrote it from a first-person perspective at the end of the book.

The engineer told her that he was brought in to investigate some technology. In 1947, army intelligence recovered an object near Roswell, New Mexico. The public was told that it was a weather balloon, but it was actually a hovering disc that contained humanoid creatures. Aliens? No: in fact, it was sent by Stalin to create mass chaos in the US, similar to how the Welles's "War of the Worlds" radio program had created large disruptions among the population. Stalin made deals with Nazi after World War II: with Mengele, the doctor who experimented on humans, to create alien-looking creatures -- actually children who had been surgically altered -- and with the Horten brothers, a pair of Nazi aeronautical engineers, to create an aircraft capable of hovering flight. Jacobsen's informant said that he was brought to Area 51 to reverse-engineer the secrets of the hovering craft, and to reverse-engineer the secrets of how the humanoid creatures were created. The engineers were able to discover how the hovering technology worked, and they continued their human experimentation for decades.

In the end, I was extremely disappointed in this book. I was hoping the parts of it that covered the secret aviation experiments and nuclear tests would be very thorough and documented; it was interesting, but much of it seems to be deduced indirectly, and that part of the story is intermingled with the hovering disc / humanoid creatures conspiracy. I was hoping the alien conspiracy part would be more entertaining, but it ended up seeming like someone had tried to combine just about every pre-existing conspiracy story they had previously heard, into one gigantic super conspiracy. This book would have been much better if it had split into two completely separate books; both sections would have been somewhat thin on material, but at least neither would undermine the purpose of the other.(less)

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title link	preview: Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base
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Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base

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