Summary of Malcolm Gladwell's Bomber Mafia

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Malcolm Gladwell's Bomber Mafia in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: In The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War, Malcolm Gladwell, author of New York Times best sellers including Talking to Strangers and host of the podcast Revisionist History, uses original interviews, archival footage, and his trademark insight to weave together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard. As listeners hear these stories unfurl, Gladwell examines one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history.

Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists had a different view. This “Bomber Mafia” asked: What if precision bombing could, just by taking out critical choke points - industrial or transportation hubs - cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal?

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638155461

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Carl L. Norden’s legacy is largely unknown to the public, but his impact on World War II is undeniable. He was a Dutch-born inventor who worked with the US Navy to create the Norden bombsight, an early prototype that allowed planes to accurately drop bombs from high altitudes.

#2

Norden was a consummate perfectionist with his work, which meant he was also an absolute nightmare to his employees. He did not care about being rude, but only about doing things right. His nickname was Old Man Dynamite, mostly due to his highly explosive outbursts at work.

#3

Norden’s bombsight is one of the most important inventions of the twentieth century. This list also includes vaccines, fertilizers, and the automobile, but the twentieth century is most dramatically defined by the two world wars. The devastation of World War I created the need for better war