Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base in Underground Knowledge

May 22, 2011 Grumpus rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, ufos

Not what I thought it would be…but still surprisingly better!

I had anticipated a book about UFOs and the secret testing and/or cover up of alien beings. Instead this is basically a biography of Area 51 and its environs. Well researched and documented with people who were willing to talk to set the record straight about what happens there. Some of it more mundane and some scary, but all very interesting.

The stories told are compelling and the narration by the author, professional. It made for a h ...more

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Feb 17, 2019 Natalie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: tinfoil-haberdashery, female-pen, she-blinded-me-with-science, give-peace-a-chance, condemned-to-repeat-it, politics-and-strange-bedfellows, america-fuck-yeah, read-in-2019

Truth is stranger, and it always is. Most people associate Area 51 with UFOs and the Roswell crash in 1947; ufologists might be let down at the reality, but I’m a black ops/intelligence/military-industrial complex dork and read this with fascination and horror (and UFOs and Roswell still figure prominently). There’s a lot of history here that was mostly unknown prior to declassification, and though I think Jacobsen really glossed over JFK’s assassination given that the CIA is suspected to have b ...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Nez rated it liked it

Interesting, but I would have liked more UFO stories instead of atomic bomb and spy plane stories.

Funniest bit was the story about gorilla masks. Back in 1942, while testing the US Air Force’s new Bell XP-59A jets. The pilots wore gorilla masks during test flights. When other Air Force pilots caught a glimpse of the jets, they were convinced the planes were being flown by gorillas. Of course, when they told other people their story, they were dismissed as drunk or crazy.

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Feb 02, 2020 Anna rated it really liked it

FBI, CIA, DOJ ALL CORRUPT

CIA is oligarch's private army. Presidents may not have a need to know.

Nothing shocks me any more. So there were no big surprises. But answers questions about Roswell.

Definitely worth the read. ...more

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Dec 30, 2021 Grace rated it really liked it

Dense book. I do not recommend trying to read it when you're in the process of trying to move and renovate a house because it's not engaging enough to remember from one reading session to another.

Regardless, I appreciated it's sticking to the facts without engaging in all the conspiracies that surround the mystery that is Area 51. The book is a history of science and technology, but also politics. Jacobsen did a great job unwrapping that. ...more

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