I found this to be very insightful. I really knew very little about the air attacks used in battle and the reasons behind their usage. I appreciated gaining a better understanding of precision bombing versus blanket air raids and what it takes to accomplish this. I also gained a different perspective on the reasons behind the Tokyo napalm attacks and ultimately the atomic bombs. The moral dilemma faced by the admirals to sacrifice some to save many is one I am glad I never had to face.
Well-written and well researched.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I wanted to read a Malcolm Gladwell book because everyone in my book club absolutely loves his books and just raves about them, but this was a book about strategies and precisions surrounding bombings. I ended up finding out that this isn't like his other books at all, and I would be better off trying another one.

I personally have tried really hard to like Malcolm Gladwells books, I know he is extremely intelligent and writes phenomenal books but unfortunately I could not get into this book.

I really enjoyed this book!
THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS BOOK WITH ME!
I got behind in the COVID DRAMA and missed posting about this important book when it came out.
Thank you!

Typical Malcolm Gladwell book in that he takes a relatively obscure subject, in this case the rise of strategic bombing in World War 2, and digs into little known figures who were key in the development. A quick and easy read that's enlightening as well.

I received a galley copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s Bomber Mafia. I’ve read five of Gladwell’s previous books and liked all but his 2019 Talking to Strangers.

The Bomber Mafia was a completely different book than all of the others. An enjoyable mix of history and perspective, the Bomber Mafia was a quick read that left me wanting to pick it back up any time that I had to take a break from reading.

I’m not a big WWII reader so most of the story was new to me and it didn’t have the same feel of some of the books that I’ve read chronicling events from that period.

While the book focuses on the early history of aerial bombing, more broadly it tells a lot about humanity, the pace of technological change, and the outsized impact that some individuals can have on history.

I would strongly recommend this book to any readers looking for something new and unique.

In the years leading up to the second world war, a group of military strategists, nicknamed "The Bomber Mafia," wondered if precision bombing of strategic targets could make war less lethal. Gladwell ponders how technology and the best intentions collide in the heat of war while examining the firebombing of Tokyo. Weaving together stories of a Dutch genius, pyromaniacal chemists, and two competing generals, Gladwell makes you consider the incalculable costs of war.

The Bomber Mafia was created as an audiobook, which was obvious when reading the e-book. The book heavily quotes outside sources, which would be much more enjoyable in an audio version. Gladwell, as always, is a stunningly good writer, making you rethink everything you thought you knew and pointing out things you never even considered. My biggest complaint was that The Bomber Mafia was too short. I wanted him to go deeper into each topic and I think he could have easily doubled the length of the book without losing your interest.

After the Great War (also known as World War I), air enthusiasts around the world worked on how to make air power more relevant on the battlefield. They dreamed of fleets of bombers streaming over the static battle lines to strike targets in the rear like cavalry of old as a war winning strategy. They just needed the right machines, the right ordinance, and the right men to make this a reality. In The Bomber Mafia, Malcom Gladwell combines his interest in the bombers of World War II to lay out some of the stories of the people involved in this utopian ideal.

Malcom Gladwell cheerfully admits in the opening that The Bomber Mafia began as a series of podcasts that were retrofitted into print. This origin explains the layout of the book. After opening the book with a change in command for the Twenty-First Bomber Command at Tinian Atoll from General Haywood Hansell to General Curtis LeMay. Then comes the dream of a Dutch genius named Carl Norden with his "analog computer" bombsight that could accurately drop a bomb on the target. Then came the dream of the Army Air Corp to be a separate service that could win a war all by itself. This dream took shape at Maxwell Field in Montgomery (AL), the home of the Air Corp Tactical School. The dream was to take out the resources and infrastructure (bridges, railroads, mines, factories, and ports) so that the enemy could no longer wage war. To that end was the creation of a bomber fleet made up of B-17 Fortresses and later B-29 Superfortresses. After the US entered World War II, the Army Air Corp based bombers in England to carry out their plan to bomb Germany into submission. That did not happen as planned since the Norden bombsight could not deliver as promised. Then there was the bombing war in the Pacific. After bases were established in Marianas, the B-29s were in range of the Japanese home islands. But weather, unknown obstacles (such as the discovery of the jet stream), and inaccurate attacks led to a change in tactics - napalm bombs and later atomic bombs. The plan changed from precision bombing to just burn everything down. And this is where the opening change in command comes into play.

Malcom Gladwell has provided a very readable introduction to the utopian ideal of air power in very broad strokes in The Bomber Mafia. His notes provide sources to document his statements. But for a more detailed look at the utility of bombing in World War II, the reader might want to explore The Bombers and the Bombed by Richard Overy or other books on this topic.

A buddy read/listen with my 18yo son which has sparked interesting discussions:
Malcolm Gladwell’s newest The Bomber Mafia
Years before the Second World War, in a sleepy air force base in central Alabama, a small group of renegade pilots put forth a radical idea: What if we made bombing so accurate that wars could be fought entirely from the air?

Malcolm Gladwell has returned with a story of what happened when that dream was put to the test. A tale of innovation and obsession, in which he asks: What happens when technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war? And what is the price of progress?

Since Malcolm Gladwell is a successful Podcaster and we had both the audio and e-book we have to conclude the audio for this one beats the ebook: various interviews, old original interview snippets or sound bites, sound effects, background music- everything is very well executed. We were very impressed.

It was fabulous to share this experience with my teen who loves nonfiction books specifically on history subjects.

Very late to catch up but this was my May nonfiction read ! I liked learning a little more back story on this specific segment of WWII.

Thank you NetGalley, Little Brown Books and Pushkin Industries for the ARC and ALC in exchange for an honest review

Malcolm Gladwell is a remarkable writer, combining the best of research and accessibility. All his books have been best sellers, and The Bomber Mafia I am sure will be no exception. He has the uncanny ability to make a reader care about topics that they never previously considered. He also digs deep into facets of a subject that the usual treatment doesn’t bring out. In The Bomber Mafia Gladwell put his lens on the topic of the development of U.S. policies on the best use of air power during World War II. For my husband, a student of World War II, there were new insights and even the introduction of little known players. For me, whose knowledge of that period in American history is limited to some great novels and movies, he created a play of larger-than-life personalities and clearly presented the battle between the schools of thought on War: why we fight, what we hope to achieve and the consequences of these actions. The story was laid out so carefully and logically that even a novice could see the ramifications of these decisions made so many years ago.
If you are already familiar with this subject from Gladwell’s podcast, Revisionist History, I encourage you to pick this up anyway. He digs deeper and adds so much he didn’t have time for in the audio blog. You will be glad to learn even more about the fascinating battle of ideas and the men who championed them.

Historical texts often fail as teaching tools because they present a topic in a linear fashion, telling a story from a timeline. Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Bomber Mafia, would never do that. As all history is the past, it is worthy of reflection, thus it is crucial to simultaneously navigate both the past and present.

The Bomber Mafia takes a moral dilemma, military strategy during WWII, and entwines it with modern thought and reflection because what the Bomber Mafia believed as part of its core values wasn't quite possible at the time they hoped to put their principles into action. This is the story of Curtis LeMay and Haywood Hansell, it is the story of precision bombing and the advent of napalm. It is the story of when war changed from a boots-on-the-ground battle to strategic airstrikes. This is the book AP US II teachers should be assigning as summer reading because Gladwell reflects on a turning point that influences foreign policy and military strategy for the remainder of the twentieth century. It is truly fantastic and encourages a deep dive back into history textbooks. The past is humanized. There's room for debate. There are paths that lead us all to our own moral compass. And when you come to that final page, you realize you NEED to talk about this book.

Malcolm Gladwell takes a deep dive into the history of aerial bombing and conflicting philosophies about how to take the fight to the enemy. In the 1920s and 1930s a group of aviators who became known as the Bomber Mafia created a theory that precise targeting of manufacturing areas will cripple the enemy and lead to peace. A counter theory was to indiscriminately bomb any place and anyone in enemy territory including soldiers and civilians. During World War II precision bombing proved ineffective leading to an alarming number of American airmen’s deaths in Europe. In 1944 in the Pacific theater the bombing philosophy switched when dropping napalm was introduced to create fires in Japanese cities killing a horrifying number of civilians. This well researched book makes readers realize the argument of precision versus indiscriminate bombing continues today with smart bombs and drones that often lead to civilian deaths. Highly recommended for readers of military history.

As a lover of Malcolm Gladwell’s previous novels and his Revisionist History podcast, I was looking forward to reading The Bomber Mafia. Gladwell provides a thorough background and many details about the history of air warfare. The depth of information about engineers and physicists illustrates his pattern of well researched books.

The fact that non-fiction isn’t my favorite genre and the subject matter resulted in a title with less appeal to me than his previous publications.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the advanced copy for my review.

An absolutely intriguing story about the two very different approaches to the use of aerial bombing in World War II as exemplified by Heyward Hansell, who favored targeted bombing, and Curtis LeMaye, who was a proponent of incendiary bombing, which targeted large swaths of the civilian population as well as defined targets.
While the development of the technology for both types of bombing was formidable, the initial results of the targeted bombing were disappointing and this led to the widespread use of incendiary bombing, which were much more catastrophic and destroyed significant portions of cities and their populations.
The story behind the development of these bombings is chilling and should serve as a cautionary tale.
The book is well-researched and Gladstone is an excellent and accomplished author although it seemed to me this subject was a departure from his usual topics. His writing provides a stark contrast between these men and the approaches they employed to fight this war.
Highly recommended for history buffs, especially WWII.

I am a long-time Gladwell fan. As soon as he announces a new book, I'm signing up. I really enjoy his writing style and the insights he brings to everyday life and experience. This newest book is very different from his previous ones - from the cover (blue instead of white) to the subject matter (more singularly-focused than usual) and the narrative style (focusing on one set of people/events rather than scattered examples across locations, time frames, and populations). Yet it was a distinctly Gladwellian book for all those differences, and I enjoyed it every bit as much as his previous, more directly sociologically-focused, works. I don't normally read "war books" - and make no mistake, this is a war book. But it's also a study of sociology and people and personalities, and that's where Gladwell shines to my mind. It's a marvelous way to learn something about a new topic, and I thoroughly enjoyed this one!

As a history buff, I am always on the lookout for new books in history, on a topic that is fascinating to me, the World Wars and the use of air power. This book was no exception! The author of “The Bomber Mafia” writes about the role the Army Air Force played in bringing the conclusion to World War Two sooner than expected. From the men who were in command, to the technology used and its inventors strived to find a a way to shorten the war, in a more humane way, to minimize casualties and damages. It can be a struggle against one’s own conscience versus the objective of it’s leaders, in bringing solutions to end the death and destruction, that war brings. In this case, how this group of men nicknamed the Bomber Mafia, and the inventions of the time, came together to force the Japanese to finally surrender, thus shortening and lessening the effects of the ongoing ground war. It is an interesting read, with more of an emphasis on telling a story rather than being a documentary with just facts, figures and detailed battle strategies. The brief stories and antidotes, in the words of the principal actors, lighten the mood, while showcasing the serious dilemma facing these men, makes the book more readable and memorable! Malcolm Gladwell is a gifted storyteller and historian! Thank you for the opportunity to review this book!

World War II bombing is a topic I have very little interest in, but I couldn't NOT read/listen to a book by Malcolm Gladwell. It was riveting!!
Although, it's very different from his other social psychology books, he still managed to inject a lot of Gladwell type questions into it and will leave you thinking "What is a better way to fight a war?" and "Where does morality fit into that question?"

Like all Gladwell books, The Bomber Mafia made me see things I thought I knew about in a new light. In this case, I didn't know these exact stories, but it shifted my view of the war ever so slightly. I learned a lot, and this non fiction reads like a story.

I have been a fan of Malcolm Gladwell's books for years, and still recommend Outliers all the time. But, I didn't really find this book extremely enjoyable or easy to read. He presents two different ideas but I found it to be somewhat confusing in the way it was written.

While the writing was good and the story somewhat interesting, this isn't up to the normal standard I associate with a Gladwell book. I'll recommend it only to those who have read everything else by him and are looking for something different.