Bombing Mafia: Dreams of Human War and Bloody Realities of World War II

Renowned journalist and writer Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of a group of U.S. aviators obsessed with the idea of precision bombing — a military doctrine that could potentially reduce casualties among enemy soldiers and civilians. In the 1940s, this idea was revolutionary: instead of destroying everything in vast territories with carpet bombing, the "bombing mafia" proposed using a new class of aircraft capable of precisely disabling key military and civilian targets. Gladwell masterfully weaves the fates of several characters — the inventor of the bomb sight, American and British generals, and engineers. All of them worked for the good of their people, but they had different visions of the optimal way to conduct war, and on the pages of this book, the history of their confrontation becomes a tense documentary thriller.