The INVENTION THAT CHANGED THE WORLD: HOW A SMALL GROUP OF RADAR PIONEERS WON THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND LAUNCHED A TECH

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. [e-mail]

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: Far and away the best popular treatise on radar development.
Review: Buderi has hit the "mother load" of largely untold storiesof earth shaking proportions. As a PhD in electrical engineringcurrently involved in the development of the next generation of radar technologies, I was mightily impressed with Buderi's deft handling of the often complex technological concepts involved in radar. Moreover, Buderi's masterful yarn spinning skills were more than up to the task of bringing to life one of the greatest TRUE stories of our time. P.S. I plan to include this book on my list of suggested reading for my electrical engineering students at the Polytechnic University of New York. Joseph R. Guerci, Ph.D.

Rating:
Summary: Good reading for the tech and history buff
Review: The author takes the reader through a course of history dating from pre-WWII to the present on the evolution of not only radar development but also radio astronomy, transisters, digital computers and the radar maping of Earth, the Moon and Venus by radar. The writers style conforms to both the general reader and the technician. If you are interested in both history and electronics you will find this book enjoyable. It will also make excellant reference material to inventors names and dates for a great many electronic devices we take for granted today.

Rating:
Summary: Good Buy For Tech Readers
Review: The title of this book, THE INVENTION THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, is a
bit perplexing. After all, there have been a lot of inventions
that have changed the world, and for all somebody just picking
up this book knows, it could be about automobiles, airplanes, TV,
canned foods, contraceptives, or whatever.

Actually, the "invention" in this case is radar, with the author,
Robert Buderi, telling the story of how the development of radar before
and during World War II led to a scientific revolution in the postwar
period.

He begins with the story of how Robert Watson-Watt helped develop the
first radar defense network before the outbreak of the Second World
War, and then goes on to Winston Churchill's decision to share British
technology with the US in 1940. This wise decision led to the
establishment of the MIT "Radiation Laboratory", which became the
prime mover in the development of microwave radar and similar
electronic technologies that contributed greatly to Allied victory.

That part of the story, however, is only about half the book. The
rest of the book gives the reader a tour of developments that
evolved from the radar effort, including the invention of the
transistor, the maser and laser, nuclear magnetic resonance sensing,
radio astronomy, and of course postwar military radar development.

Buderi's approach is to try to balance the political, technical, and
personal aspects of the story, with a strong emphasis on readability
instead of great technical detail. He was a technical editor for
BUSINESS WEEK at one time, and it's written somewhat at the level of
detail and clarity that a reader might expect for scientific and
technical articles in BUSINESS WEEK, THE ECONOMIST, or similar
magazines. There's a good emphasis on personalities, including
physicist Luis Alvarez, British radar expert Eddie Bowen, British
countermeasures expert Reginald Victor Jones, physicist Charles
Townes, and many others.

This "middle path" is at the same time both a strength and unavoidably
a weakness. THE INVENTION THAT CHANGED THE WORLD is very entertaining
reading, but the technically oriented reader may find it not
technical enough, while the non-technical reader may find it too
technical. It is also somewhat selective in its focus, essentially
cutting a main road through the "forest" instead of trying to construct
a detailed map of its entire extent. For example, the discussion of
radar development is far from complete and balanced, doing little more
than mentioning US Navy, US Army, and Axis work before the war.
(I have some notes on this subject, by the way, and those interested
might contact me.)

Another caution is that has few illustrations, and they're really of
no great interest in any case. If it had no illustrations I wouldn't
have noticed they were gone.

These are less criticisms than descriptive comments. It is clear that
Buderi sensibly decided what his focus was going to be and what it
was not going to be, and stuck very well to that policy. However,
that tradeoff implies that not everyone is going to be interested in
this book. This is why I give it four stars and not five. However,
all that being said, I highly recommend this book.

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.