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Rating: 
Summary: Required reading for prospective engineers
Review: A superb piece of work. Anyone contemplating a career in physics or engineering should read this book. If Buderi's descriptions of the technical chase don't thrill and inspire you, strongly consider directing your efforts elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: I was There!
Review: After all these years (1942-1998) I see at last an account of the work we did at Sydney University Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Radiophysics Lab! I was a Navy 2nd Class Radarman assigned to develop electronic countermeasures items (electronic warfare). This book tells it like it was! It rang so true to me that I was carried back once again to my three years on that assignment under Gen Douglas MacArthur, as a member of the ECM group. If you want to know what we did, and many others around the world in this super-secret assignment, Buderi has captured it beautifully. No one person or group "won" the war, but the part played by those involved in radar most certainly changed its course toward the eventual outcome so little appreciated today. --wboyd@netdex.com
Rating:
Summary: An engrossing non-technical overview of radar development
Review: Before I read this book, I (like most technically minded people) knew of Los Alamos and the development of the atomic bomb, and had a vague impression that MIT was working on radar during this same time. What I *didn't* know was that radar development was an equally urgent crash program, with a similarly brilliant scientific staff (11 future Nobel prizes), and lots more practical applications. Furthermore, compared to Los Alamos, they faced and overcame many additional challenges - among them starting mass production of brand new technology, and convincing the military to change their doctrines based on new technical capabilities.Like Rhodes's "The Making of the Atomic Bomb", the story is told in chronological order, mixing the human and technical aspects and conveying the urgency and suspense of a desperate wartime situation. Unlike Rhodes's book, it follows the people and technology further, showing how the (then young) scientists went on to fame and fortune, and how the technology has changed our daily life. The book is engrossing even for non-specialists - my wife (a chiropractor) picked it up to see what I found so fascinating, and I couldn't get it back!
Rating: 
Summary: Really Two Books - The First Great, The Second Lacking
Review: This book is really two books in one, the first being an outline of the development of radar immediately prior to and during World War II. This part takes up the first 245 pages of the book, is extremely well organized and plays out the complete development and deployment of radar during World War II. This early part takes you through the people and organizations that were behind radar's development, as well as a very top level view of the technology used to create the device. The author walks you through a very good description of radar's development on a global scale, outlining how the US and UK led the development, why Germany was only slightly further behind, and why Japan was so lagging. Mr. Buderi takes several major battles, including the Battle of Britain, the Battle of the Bulge and the Battle of Midway, and outlines the significance of radar in those battles and how it truly was the winning weapon of the war. This part of the book clearly rates 5 stars, and makes the whole text worth purchasing. The second part of the book, which takes up the final 233 pages, is less organized and much less linear in its thought development. While this lack of organization does reflect the decentralization of radar development following WWII, it does not make this section any easier to read. While the development or radar as an astronomical tool, its deployment and adoption at civilian airports and the use of its underlying technologies in the development of integrated circuit are all significant, their depiction as essential parts of the story is lacking. The second part ranks 2 stars, and is good reference material, but should be read on a chapter by chapter basis, as that appears to be how they were written. In summary, the first part is great - 5 stars, the second part was less a book, but more a stringing together of engineering stories and earned only 2 stars. I gave it a weighted average of 4. Favorite Excerpts: "I never read books - they interfere with thinking." - Paul Dirac to Robert Oppenheimer (page 48) "It didn't make me more enemies than I cared about, because the enemies that you have to worry about are smart enemies, and smart people didn't get mad at me unless they had a good reason to." - George Valley Jr. (page 183) "Some of my friends seemed to know every year model of every car, that seemed to me so temporary and uninteresting. Nature is such a permanent aspect of our universe, and so obviously God-made." -Charles Townes (page 336) "We had the authority and influence that came from being indispensable." - Jay Forrester (page 397)
Rating:
Summary: Really Two Books - The First Great, The Second Lacking
Review: This book is really two books in one, the first being an outline of the development of radar immediately prior to and during World War II. This part takes up the first 245 pages of the book, is extremely well organized and plays out the complete development and deployment of radar during World War II. This early part takes you through the people and organizations that were behind radar's development, as well as a very top level view of the technology used to create the device. The author walks you through a very good description of radar's development on a global scale, outlining how the US and UK led the development, why Germany was only slightly further behind, and why Japan was so lagging. Mr. Buderi takes several major battles, including the Battle of Britain, the Battle of the Bulge and the Battle of Midway, and outlines the significance of radar in those battles and how it truly was the winning weapon of the war. This part of the book clearly rates 5 stars, and makes the whole text worth purchasing. The second part of the book, which takes up the final 233 pages, is less organized and much less linear in its thought development. While this lack of organization does reflect the decentralization of radar development following WWII, it does not make this section any easier to read. While the development or radar as an astronomical tool, its deployment and adoption at civilian airports and the use of its underlying technologies in the development of integrated circuit are all significant, their depiction as essential parts of the story is lacking. The second part ranks 2 stars, and is good reference material, but should be read on a chapter by chapter basis, as that appears to be how they were written. In summary, the first part is great - 5 stars, the second part was less a book, but more a stringing together of engineering stories and earned only 2 stars. I gave it a weighted average of 4. Favorite Excerpts: "I never read books - they interfere with thinking." - Paul Dirac to Robert Oppenheimer (page 48) "It didn't make me more enemies than I cared about, because the enemies that you have to worry about are smart enemies, and smart people didn't get mad at me unless they had a good reason to." - George Valley Jr. (page 183) "Some of my friends seemed to know every year model of every car, that seemed to me so temporary and uninteresting. Nature is such a permanent aspect of our universe, and so obviously God-made." -Charles Townes (page 336) "We had the authority and influence that came from being indispensable." - Jay Forrester (page 397)
Rating:
Summary: Great story but, a little bit too complex
Review: This kind of books is the one that is capable of make you stop and think of the world history and what happens behind our backs. It is a splendid book, with a great story and very good technical details. However, the author losts itself among complex scientific data (especially about quantum theory) that is not available to everyone, including myself (so I merelly skip those parts). It was very interesting.
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