The Cold War: A World History
by Odd Arne Westad · 4 Sep 2017 · 846pp · 250,145 words
horrified Reagan, who as president avoided most briefings or simulations in which he would have to do so. Instead, the president in 1983 commissioned a Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which would focus on preventing nuclear missiles from ever reaching the US mainland. Dubbed “Star Wars” by its detractors, these plans imagined the use
…
?”11 Gorbachev, for some very good reasons, doubted the sincerity in Reagan’s appeal. But he worried about the increases in defense spending that the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program would inflict on the Soviet Union. He also needed time to develop his European initiatives, which he hoped would split the western Europeans
…
Soviet arsenal, 416, 485 Stalin’s program to develop, 101–102 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), 413–414, 485, 487, 489, 492, 496, 506, 523 Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), 523, 537, 540 tactical, 304 test ban treaty, 311 threat of nuclear destruction, 537, 627–629 threat of Soviet use on China, 255 uranium
…
and, 499, 532–533, 570 nuclear weapons and, 522–523, 537, 540–541 Soviet Union and, 497–498, 501, 504–505, 507–508, 522–523 Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), 523, 537, 540 Thatcher and, 519 Third World strategy, 562 on US destiny/leadership, 476–477 Reagan Revolution, 497 reconstructions, 99–127 Red Army
…
Between the State, Marxism, and the Concentration Camps (Glucksmann), 417 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), 413–414, 420, 485, 487, 489, 492, 496, 506, 523 Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), 523, 537, 540 Stresemann, Gustav, 37 Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), 378 Stuttgart Declaration (1983), 517–518 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), 225
The Future of War
by Lawrence Freedman · 9 Oct 2017 · 592pp · 161,798 words
_a_washington_word.html. However, the word was introduced during the development of concepts for destroying missiles in space as part of President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (including a Kinetic Kill Vehicle). The kinetic energy of an object is the energy that it possesses due to its motion. 39. M. L. R
…
and, 121 outer space and, 89 realism and, 109–110 technological advancement and, 88–89 US after, 136–137 See also ABM Treaty; flexible response; strategic defense initiative Cole, August, 250–252 collateral damage, 201 Collier, Paul, 162–163 Colomb, Philip, 12 Colombia, 257–258 colonialism Africa and, 150–152 capitalism and, 35
…
states, war strengthening, 216–217 The Statistics of Deadly Quarrels (Richardson), 111 Stead, William, 15 Steer, George, 59–60 Stevenson, Adlai, 74 Stoessinger, John, 278 strategic defense initiative, 97 Streseman, Gustav, 49 A Study of War (Wright, Q.), 110–111 Stuxnet, 236 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), 88, 90 submarines, 6, 19–20
…
, 63–67, 118 See also Cold War; 11 September 2001; National Security Agency; navy, US; North American Aerospace Defense Command; Pacific War; Philippines War, Second; strategic defense initiative; US National Intelligence Council; Vietnam War Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), 117, 132 US. See United States US National Intelligence Council, 273–276 Valentino, Benjamin
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict From 1500 to 2000
by Paul Kennedy · 15 Jan 1989 · 1,477pp · 311,310 words
costly upgrading and modernization may not keep pace with newer weapons technology.118 This problem may become particularly acute if significant breakthroughs occur in American Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) technology, and if the Russians in their turn develop a much larger system of ballistic-missile defense. Nothing is more disturbing, from the French
…
of weapons to carry out its various and disparate strategical tasks. The second sign of Soviet unease about technological obsolescence relates to the so-called Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) of the Reagan administration. It seems difficult at this stage to believe that it would really make the United States completely invulnerable to nuclear
America in the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign Policy
by Robert B. Zoellick · 3 Aug 2020
dream of doing away with both MAD and nuclear weapons, the practical Reagan wanted some protection. He did not know what type of shield his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) would eventually provide.46 At times, Reagan recognized that even just the prospect of an eventual defense against missiles added to Soviet fears about
The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy
by David Hoffman · 1 Jan 2009 · 719pp · 209,224 words
nuclear attack in the telegrams about the RYAN intelligence-gathering operation. Reagan had escalated the rhetoric with his "evil empire" speech and announced his futuristic Strategic Defense Initiative in March. Documents from the U.S.S. Enterprise about the navy's F-14 flyover and the provocative naval exercises off the Soviet coast
…
this; they sent British press reports to Moscow instead. 7 Early in 1984, Reagan had signed an order formally launching the research effort into his Strategic Defense Initiative.8 In the Kremlin, however, Soviet leaders were still worried about the threat from Pershing IIs and the ground-launched cruise missiles. The Pershing IIs
…
of space." Shultz said Dobrynin brought up kosmos--the Russian word for outer space--at every meeting. 23 This was aimed directly at Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, although the actual program was barely getting started. By one account, that summer the program comprised two dozen people working out of a dilapidated office
…
"eloquent and emotional," Gorbachev remembered. Thatcher also knew Gorbachev might give her a message for Reagan. She listened closely when he spoke about Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. Privately, Thatcher had little confidence in Reagan's dream of making nuclear weapons obsolete, but kept her counsel. What caught her ear at Chequers was
…
. Thatcher said Gorbachev was more charming and more open to discussion and debate than his predecessors. She recounted how Gorbachev had zeroed in on the Strategic Defense Initiative. In response, Reagan opened up with a fulsome description of his great dream as both a technological quest and a moral imperative, with an ultimate
…
night, "What if we tell the world, we want to protect our people, not avenge them...?" [Ronald Reagan Library] Reagan unveiled his vision for the Strategic Defense Initiative in a televised speech on March 23, 1983. [Ray Lustig/Washington Post] The nuclear accident at Chernobyl in April 1986 was a turning point for
…
met with Dobrynin in Washington in June and offered a trade-off: if both sides made deep cuts in offensive nuclear weapons, perhaps Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative could be slowed down. Shultz also proposed that negotiations be started through a confidential back channel, bypassing the deadlocked Geneva talks. In two weeks, the
…
Soviet military-industrial complex laid on Gorbachev's desk a plea for their own "Star Wars." It came two years after Reagan had announced his Strategic Defense Initiative. It would propel the Soviet Union on the path of previous decades, faithful to the Cold War trajectory of two worlds in collision and ceaseless
…
for deploying weapons in space, the U.S. effort to build an anti-satellite weapon; and they were given extensive tasks to spy on the Strategic Defense Initiative. Woven into the KGB's instructions were details already plucked from newspapers about Reagan's program, such as the budget sums and the broad direction
…
Americans were deliberately trying to choke Moscow with fear by leaking a flood of information.36 In the two years since Reagan's announcement, the Strategic Defense Initiative was not even close to blueprints--it was still little more than a dream--but it had grabbed the attention of the Soviet leadership. To
…
Union, by itself, would stop nuclear testing, and invited the United States to follow suit. Reagan did not. To Velikhov's confident assertion that the Strategic Defense Initiative would not work, his Soviet colleagues often posed a difficult question: if it was not possible to create an effective missile shield with America's
…
Americans were always distinguished by their systematic approach to problems, that they "do nothing in vain." Rather than a hoax or bluff, they decided the Strategic Defense Initiative was a cover story for a gigantic, hidden effort to subsidize American defense contractors, save them from "bankruptcy" and produce a fresh surge of superior
…
1985, Gorbachev gave an interview to Time magazine, his rhetoric offering a refreshing change from the decades of Cold War confrontation. When asked about the Strategic Defense Initiative, Gorbachev said Soviet experts believed it was "sheer fantasy and a pipe dream." His progressive brain trust had helped prepare his remarks. 51Two weeks later
…
. In one passage, the document noted that many of them had signed a letter published in the New York Times in opposition to Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983. Velikhov was named and singled out with a photo. It was noted accurately that Velikhov had been head of the Institute of Atomic
…
Gorbachev in a feisty, uncompromising mood. Gorbachev's remarks followed the broad outline of the "asymmetrical response," but he was clumsy. He attacked Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, saying at one point the purpose was to bail out the military-industrial complex in the United States, which Gorbachev claimed employed 18 million Americans
…
the afternoon, Gorbachev came roaring back, this time deploying the "asymmetrical response" with energy and verve. Gorbachev fired volley after volley of arguments against the Strategic Defense Initiative. It would lead to an arms race in space, not just a defensive one, but an offensive one, he said. Scholars say any shield can
…
day, tempers rose even higher. Gorbachev said a Soviet scientist had done research and found out the explanation for Reagan's determination to build the Strategic Defense Initiative was that it would add $600 billion to $1 trillion in new military expenditures. Reagan said the scientist was dealing in fantasy. If a defensive
…
the ground-launched cruise missiles. He also demanded that the United States and Soviet Union mutually renounce "space strike weapons," a reference to Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. In the second stage, to begin in 1990 and last five to seven years, the United States and Soviet Union would continue to reduce their
…
ideas, such as tackling some disputes one by one rather than all together, and some old roadblocks, such as Soviet demands to stop Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. Paul Nitze was fascinated. "I wonder whose work of art on the Soviet side this is," he said. 8 Weeks earlier, Reagan had appointed a
…
is the moment when our bargaining position is at its strongest." Shultz wanted to signal to the Soviets that Reagan would trade limits on his Strategic Defense Initiative for deeper cuts in offensive weapons, like ballistic missiles, but Shultz was opposed at every turn by Weinberger, the defense secretary, who urged Reagan not
…
in 1985, marking forty years since Hiroshima, he challenged the United States to follow suit. Gorbachev hoped the moratorium would crimp research for Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. Tests would be needed to develop an effective nuclear-pumped X-ray laser. "If there is no testing, there will be no SDI," Chernyaev wrote
…
each remark was translated after it was spoken, which took time. Reagan's presentation repeated the idea in his July 25 letter that once his Strategic Defense Initiative was ready, he would share it, and the ABM treaty would disappear, replaced by a new agreement, while both sides would reach "total elimination of
…
all on Gorbachev's demand to keep the research in the laboratory. Gorbachev's temper flared, and he warned Reagan that if he built the Strategic Defense Initiative, there would be a Soviet response--an "asymmetrical" one. He did not say what it would be, only that it would be "different." Reagan apparently
…
Soviet Union would remain locked in Cold War competition, that there would be no deep cuts and they would have to retaliate against Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, "especially its outer space components." For all Gorbachev's enthusiasm, they thought, the arms race might not end soon.5 Although the Politburo members did
…
trail, he evoked enthusiastic cheers from audiences when he declared that at Iceland, "I just said, 'No!'" Reagan portrayed his refusal to give up the Strategic Defense Initiative as a triumph, even though SDI did not even exist. Soon, however, Reagan was plunged into a season of troubles. Serious questions were raised about
…
it. Gorbachev repeatedly called it the "package": concessions on the intermediate-range missiles and on the long-range weapons must be contingent on limiting the Strategic Defense Initiative. "We will stand on this, firmly," Gorbachev confidently told the Politburo on October 14. "We do not need any cheap tricks, only the package." But
…
it, such as laser, particle beam, kinetic energy and microwave electronics. This argument was often made by U.S. officials to build support for the Strategic Defense Initiative. But it was hype. Katayev wrote in his spravka the Soviets were in fact way behind the level of technology suggested by Gates. The alarmist
…
special glow. Even more significant was Sakharov's message: it was time to get on with reducing dangerous missiles and break the deadlock over the Strategic Defense Initiative. It was time to crack open the Gorbachev "package" from Reykjavik.18 Gorbachev had earlier been certain the package deal would bring results. But now
…
years had passed since the space designers and rocket builders had put on Gorbachev's desk their blueprints for a sprawling Soviet version of the Strategic Defense Initiative. To see their handiwork, Gorbachev flew to the Soviet cosmodrome at Baikonur, in Kazakhstan, on May 11. The next day, he toured the launch pad
…
, Alexander Nadiradze, the missile designer who created the Pioneer, sent a panicky letter to the Central Committee. Four years after Reagan had first announced the Strategic Defense Initiative, Nadiradze declared he had figured out the truth: it was a plan to use space to shoot a nuclear warhead back down to Earth! This
…
in St. Vladimir's Hall at the Kremlin on the afternoon of July 31, there was almost no trace of the old dispute over the Strategic Defense Initiative, the single issue on which the Reykjavik summit foundered. Gorbachev, who had protested so long and so loudly about weapons in space, did not mention
…
of Gorbachev's greatest accomplishments was in the things he did not do. An argument was often made in later years that it was the Strategic Defense Initiative that bankrupted the Soviet Union. It is true that Reagan's vision gave Soviet leaders a fright--it symbolized the unbridled nature of American ambitions
…
Donald R. Baucom, The Origins of SDI: 1944-1983 (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas), p. 184. Baucom was staff historian for the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative Organization. 48 Bob Sims, interview, Feb. 26, 1985. 49 Skinner, pp. 430-432. The essay is dated May 7, 1931. 50 Anderson, Hoover presentation. 51
…
Reagan letter to Gorbachev, April 30, 1985, RRPL. 27 Chernyaev diary, April 16, 1985. 28 A contentious issue this year was whether Reagan's proposed Strategic Defense Initiative would remain within a narrow interpretation of the 1972 treaty on missile defense, or whether the administration was seeking to use a broader interpretation of
…
(as in 'up top 38') warheads," http://russian forces.org. For the U.S. expectations of asymmetric response, see "Possible Soviet Responses to the US Strategic Defense Initiative," NIC M 83-10017, Sept. 12, 1983, Director of Central Intelligence. 49 Gorbachev interview, June 30, 2006. 50 Nichols, p. 133. 51 Chernyaev diary, Sept
Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War
by Raj M. Shah and Christopher Kirchhoff · 8 Jul 2024 · 272pp · 103,638 words
programs launched over the decades that followed. The most ambitious came to be known as “Star Wars.” Announced in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan, the Strategic Defense Initiative was a program to put lasers and particle-beam weapons into a fleet of orbiting killer satellites that would blast incoming missiles out of the
…
defenses, 77 “Brilliant Pebbles,” 78 Datahub AI system, 80, 81, 86, 98 “left-of-launch” solution, 78, 79, 91 Nike air defense system, 77, 79 Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), 77–78 Banazadeh, Payam, ix, 82, 83, 84, 151 Butow and, 82, 84, 85–86 Capella Space and, 81, 82, 85, 199 DoD
Truth, Lies, and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
by Allan J McDonald and James R. Hansen · 25 Apr 2009 · 787pp · 249,157 words
SRM technology that I had worked on earlier in my career in support of a kinetic energy weapons system being studied as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative, or “Star Wars” program. I was supposed to be in Elkton for a week but had to return home early because I was notified that
…
the causes of the accident. Cook claimed that the administration was in the process of militarizing the Space Shuttle program in support of Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, or “Star Wars” program, and that this was the real reason why Reagan had replaced former NASA Administrator James Beggs with Bill Graham, a nuclear
…
), 118, 269–70, 274–75 Stever, Dr. H. Guyford (NRC), 408, 538–40 Stewart, Bob (astronaut), 293 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II (SALT II), 558 Strategic Defense Initiative, 354 Sucher, John (MTI), 543 Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character (Feynman), 363. See also Feynman, Dr. Richard P. Sutter
1983: Reagan, Andropov, and a World on the Brink
by Taylor Downing · 23 Apr 2018 · 400pp · 121,708 words
, 215, 236, 255, 264, 275, 312, 317, 319 Prague Spring 47 President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) 339, 349–50 protective missile system see Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) psychological operations (PSYOPS) 139–43, 147, 162, 182, 187, 310, 340 Putin, Vladimir 341 Pym, Francis 37 radiation sickness 3–4, 249 radioactive contamination
…
, 78, 80, 85, 240 technology gap 72, 73, 104, 120, 143, 144 The Soviet War Scare, 1983 (documentary) 346 Soyuz spacecraft 14 space weapons see Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) Speakes, Larry 169, 176 Sputnik 9, 194 SS-18 missiles 90 SS-19 missiles 242 SS-20 missiles 29, 53, 75, 75, 78, 94
…
, Joseph 5, 23, 24, 35, 146, 237, 329 anti-Jewish purges 47 death of 42 and the Great Terror 36, 39–40 ‘Star Wars’ see Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) Stasi 85, 128, 130, 133, 335 Stewart, Nina 349 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles 310 Stombaugh, Paul, Jr 284 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I
…
) 13, 14, 94, 156 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II) 30, 77 Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) 94, 105, 270, 334 Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) 103 costs 102 Geneva summit and 298, 299, 304 Gorbachev’s hostility to 273, 298, 299, 304, 305, 306, 309, 313, 314, 315, 316
The New Gold Rush: The Riches of Space Beckon!
by Joseph N. Pelton · 5 Nov 2016 · 321pp · 89,109 words
from Crusades. The new technologies that are being envisioned for space-based strategic operations are very high tech indeed. Although we did not deploy the strategic defense initiative known popularly as “star wars ,” most of the underlying technical capability is now available. Clearly the United States, Russia and China, at least, have anti
The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times
by Giovanni Arrighi · 15 Mar 2010 · 7,371pp · 186,208 words
spectacular increase in the US national debt was associated with an escalation of the Cold War with the USSR — primarily, though not exclusively, through the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) — and a whole series of punitive shows of military muscle against select unfriendly regimes of the Third World — Grenada in 1983, Libya in 1986
…
, 108 Schor, Juliet, 306-7 Schumpeter, Joseph, 30, 36-37, 122-23, 219, 336-38, 370 Schurmann, Franz, 66, 350-51 Scotland, 189, 202 SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative), 327 Second Cold War, 17 Second World, 22, 333, 334 secular cycles, 7, 8, 174 self-regulation markets, 72, 263-66 September 1 1, 2001
…
; production and, 185; United Kingdom and, 51; Venice and, 149-50 Statute ofArtificiers (1563), 199 Steensgaard, Niels, 148, 149 stock markets, 142 Strange, Susan, 321 Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), 327 subcontracting systems, 355-58 substitution, principle of, 260, 261 Supple, Barry, 201 surplus capital: in Britain, 266; conversion to commodities, 307; described, 167
Artificial Whiteness
by Yarden Katz
The Cold War
by Robert Cowley · 5 May 1992 · 546pp · 176,169 words
Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion ofSafety
by Eric Schlosser · 16 Sep 2013 · 956pp · 267,746 words
Farewell
by Sergei Kostin and Eric Raynaud · 14 Apr 2011 · 485pp · 148,662 words
Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed
by Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos · 1 Jan 1994 · 382pp · 116,351 words
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt · 3 Sep 2007 · 801pp · 229,742 words
The Rise of the Network Society
by Manuel Castells · 31 Aug 1996 · 843pp · 223,858 words
The Jasons: The Secret History of Science's Postwar Elite
by Ann Finkbeiner · 26 Mar 2007
The End of the Cold War: 1985-1991
by Robert Service · 7 Oct 2015
Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military
by Neil Degrasse Tyson and Avis Lang · 10 Sep 2018 · 745pp · 207,187 words
The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency
by Annie Jacobsen · 14 Sep 2015 · 558pp · 164,627 words
Stealth
by Peter Westwick · 22 Nov 2019 · 474pp · 87,687 words
The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to US Empire
by Wikileaks · 24 Aug 2015 · 708pp · 176,708 words
Green Tyranny: Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate Industrial Complex
by Rupert Darwall · 2 Oct 2017 · 451pp · 115,720 words
Bomb Scare
by Joseph Cirincione · 24 Dec 2011 · 293pp · 74,709 words
Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield
by Jeremy Scahill · 22 Apr 2013 · 1,117pp · 305,620 words
Who Rules the World?
by Noam Chomsky
Turning the Tide
by Noam Chomsky · 14 Sep 2015
Strategy Strikes Back: How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict
by Max Brooks, John Amble, M. L. Cavanaugh and Jaym Gates · 14 May 2018 · 278pp · 84,002 words
Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War
by Paul Scharre · 23 Apr 2018 · 590pp · 152,595 words
Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America's Great Power Prophet
by Edward Luce · 13 May 2025 · 612pp · 235,188 words
Open Space: From Earth to Eternity--the Global Race to Explore and Conquer the Cosmos
by David Ariosto · 24 Mar 2026 · 433pp · 116,344 words
The Mission: A True Story
by David W. Brown · 26 Jan 2021
The end of history and the last man
by Francis Fukuyama · 28 Feb 2006 · 446pp · 578 words
New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI
by Frank Pasquale · 14 May 2020 · 1,172pp · 114,305 words
Transcending the Cold War: Summits, Statecraft, and the Dissolution of Bipolarity in Europe, 1970–1990
by Kristina Spohr and David Reynolds · 24 Aug 2016 · 627pp · 127,613 words
Atomic Obsession: Nuclear Alarmism From Hiroshima to Al-Qaeda
by John Mueller · 1 Nov 2009 · 465pp · 124,074 words
Red Storm Rising
by Tom Clancy · 2 Jan 1986
Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance
by Noam Chomsky · 1 Jan 2003 · 351pp · 96,780 words
Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century
by P. W. Singer · 1 Jan 2010 · 797pp · 227,399 words
The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union
by Serhii Plokhy · 12 May 2014
Gorbachev: His Life and Times
by William Taubman
Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base
by Annie Jacobsen · 16 May 2011 · 572pp · 179,024 words
The Man From the Future: The Visionary Life of John Von Neumann
by Ananyo Bhattacharya · 6 Oct 2021 · 476pp · 121,460 words
The Cold War: A New History
by John Lewis Gaddis · 1 Jan 2005 · 392pp · 106,532 words
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
by Nick Bostrom · 3 Jun 2014 · 574pp · 164,509 words
Necessary Illusions
by Noam Chomsky · 1 Sep 1995
Reagan at Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours That Ended the Cold War
by Ken Adelman · 5 May 2014 · 372pp · 115,094 words
The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era
by Craig Nelson · 25 Mar 2014 · 684pp · 188,584 words
The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America
by Margaret O'Mara · 8 Jul 2019
The Cardinal of the Kremlin
by Tom Clancy · 2 Jan 1988
Cuckoo's Egg
by Clifford Stoll · 2 Jan 1989 · 440pp · 117,978 words
On Power and Ideology
by Noam Chomsky · 7 Jul 2015
Vertical: The City From Satellites to Bunkers
by Stephen Graham · 8 Nov 2016 · 519pp · 136,708 words
Into the Black: The Extraordinary Untold Story of the First Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the Astronauts Who Flew Her
by Rowland White and Richard Truly · 18 Apr 2016 · 570pp · 151,609 words
When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach
by Ashlee Vance · 8 May 2023 · 558pp · 175,965 words
Predator: The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution
by Richard Whittle · 15 Sep 2014 · 455pp · 131,569 words
The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World
by Tim Marshall · 14 Oct 2021 · 383pp · 105,387 words
The Atlantic and Its Enemies: A History of the Cold War
by Norman Stone · 15 Feb 2010 · 851pp · 247,711 words
The America That Reagan Built
by J. David Woodard · 15 Mar 2006
Amazing Stories of the Space Age
by Rod Pyle · 21 Dec 2016
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space
by Adam Higginbotham · 14 May 2024 · 523pp · 204,889 words
Reentry: SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the Reusable Rockets That Launched a Second Space Age
by Eric Berger · 23 Sep 2024 · 375pp · 113,230 words
The Pentagon: A History
by Steve Vogel · 26 May 2008 · 760pp · 218,087 words
The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule
by Thomas Frank · 5 Aug 2008 · 482pp · 122,497 words
Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age
by W. Bernard Carlson · 11 May 2013 · 733pp · 184,118 words
Because We Say So
by Noam Chomsky
Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race
by Tim Fernholz · 20 Mar 2018 · 328pp · 96,141 words
Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America
by Giles Slade · 14 Apr 2006 · 384pp · 89,250 words
Understanding Power
by Noam Chomsky · 26 Jul 2010
Near and Distant Neighbors: A New History of Soviet Intelligence
by Jonathan Haslam · 21 Sep 2015 · 525pp · 131,496 words
The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age
by Steve Olson · 28 Jul 2020 · 378pp · 103,136 words
Realizing Tomorrow: The Path to Private Spaceflight
by Chris Dubbs, Emeline Paat-dahlstrom and Charles D. Walker · 1 Jun 2011 · 376pp · 110,796 words
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
by Ben Horowitz · 4 Mar 2014 · 270pp · 79,068 words
Underground
by Suelette Dreyfus · 1 Jan 2011 · 547pp · 160,071 words
Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots
by John Markoff · 24 Aug 2015 · 413pp · 119,587 words
Come Fly With Us: NASA's Payload Specialist Program
by Melvin Croft, John Youskauskas and Don Thomas · 1 Feb 2019 · 609pp · 159,043 words
Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe
by Serhii Plokhy · 1 Mar 2018 · 465pp · 140,800 words
"Live From Cape Canaveral": Covering the Space Race, From Sputnik to Today
by Jay Barbree · 18 Aug 2008 · 386pp · 92,778 words
Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction
by Alec Nevala-Lee · 22 Oct 2018 · 622pp · 169,014 words
Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation
by Serhii Plokhy · 9 Oct 2017 · 476pp · 138,420 words
A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?
by Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith · 6 Nov 2023 · 490pp · 132,502 words
Rocket Dreams: Musk, Bezos and the Trillion-Dollar Space Race
by Christian Davenport · 6 Sep 2025 · 441pp · 127,950 words
Atrocity Archives
by Stross, Charles · 13 Jan 2004 · 404pp · 113,514 words
Future War: Preparing for the New Global Battlefield
by Robert H. Latiff · 25 Sep 2017 · 158pp · 46,353 words
The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution
by Richard Wrangham · 29 Jan 2019 · 473pp · 130,141 words
The Mythical Man-Month
by Brooks, Jr. Frederick P. · 1 Jan 1975 · 259pp · 67,456 words
How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Spaceflight
by Julian Guthrie · 19 Sep 2016
Operation Chaos: The Vietnam Deserters Who Fought the CIA, the Brainwashers, and Themselves
by Matthew Sweet · 13 Feb 2018 · 493pp · 136,235 words
Utopias: A Brief History From Ancient Writings to Virtual Communities
by Howard P. Segal · 20 May 2012 · 299pp · 19,560 words
Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration
by Buzz Aldrin and Leonard David · 1 Apr 2013 · 183pp · 51,514 words
The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era
by Gary Gerstle · 14 Oct 2022 · 655pp · 156,367 words
The Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Limitless Possibility
by Robert Zubrin · 30 Apr 2019 · 452pp · 126,310 words
Animal Spirits: The American Pursuit of Vitality From Camp Meeting to Wall Street
by Jackson Lears
Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software
by Scott Rosenberg · 2 Jan 2006 · 394pp · 118,929 words
Two Nations, Indivisible: A History of Inequality in America: A History of Inequality in America
by Jamie Bronstein · 29 Oct 2016 · 332pp · 89,668 words
A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life
by Brian Grazer and Charles Fishman · 6 Apr 2014 · 302pp · 74,878 words
Nobody's Perfect: Writings From the New Yorker
by Anthony Lane · 26 Aug 2002 · 879pp · 309,222 words
Next Stop Execution: The Autobiography of Oleg Gordievsky
by Oleg Gordievsky · 13 Apr 2015 · 438pp · 146,246 words
Gambling Man
by Lionel Barber · 3 Oct 2024 · 424pp · 123,730 words
Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX
by Eric Berger · 2 Mar 2021 · 304pp · 89,879 words
Never Panic Early: An Apollo 13 Astronaut's Journey
by Fred Haise and Bill Moore · 4 Apr 2022 · 263pp · 72,899 words
Interplanetary Robots
by Rod Pyle
The Hacker Crackdown
by Bruce Sterling · 15 Mar 1992 · 345pp · 105,722 words
Collider
by Paul Halpern · 3 Aug 2009 · 279pp · 75,527 words
Beautiful Architecture: Leading Thinkers Reveal the Hidden Beauty in Software Design
by Diomidis Spinellis and Georgios Gousios · 30 Dec 2008 · 680pp · 157,865 words
SAM: One Robot, a Dozen Engineers, and the Race to Revolutionize the Way We Build
by Jonathan Waldman · 7 Jan 2020 · 277pp · 91,698 words
The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
by Steven Pinker · 1 Jan 1994 · 661pp · 187,613 words
Massive: The Missing Particle That Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science
by Ian Sample · 1 Jan 2010 · 310pp · 89,838 words
In Our Own Image: Savior or Destroyer? The History and Future of Artificial Intelligence
by George Zarkadakis · 7 Mar 2016 · 405pp · 117,219 words
AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War
by Tom McNichol · 31 Aug 2006
The Moon: A History for the Future
by Oliver Morton · 1 May 2019 · 319pp · 100,984 words
Big Bang
by Simon Singh · 1 Jan 2004 · 492pp · 149,259 words
Maths on the Back of an Envelope: Clever Ways to (Roughly) Calculate Anything
by Rob Eastaway · 18 Sep 2019 · 150pp · 43,467 words