The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War by Malcolm Gladwell

The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War is written by Malcolm Gladwell. This edition is presented as a New York Times bestseller.

Key details

• Author: Malcolm Gladwell
• Full title: The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War
• New York Times bestseller
• From the creator and host of the podcast Revisionist History

Synopsis

In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell brings together interlinked wartime stories to consider how new technology, idealism and decision-making collide under pressure. He follows a Dutch inventor and his homemade computer, a close-knit group in central Alabama, a British figure described as a psychopath, and Harvard chemists whose work helped shape what was possible from the air.

Set against the years leading up to the Second World War and its most devastating moments, the book contrasts the “Bomber Mafia” belief in precision bombing with the scorched-earth approach associated with General Curtis LeMay, including the bombing of Tokyo on the war’s deadliest night. Alongside General Haywood Hansell’s commitment to precision tactics and the leadership changeover in Guam, Gladwell returns to a single, unsettling question: was it worth it? Suitable for readers of narrative non-fiction and modern military history.

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