The explosive story of America's secret post-WWII science programs, from the author of the New York Times bestseller Area 51In the chaos following World War II, the U.S. government faced many difficult decisions, including what to do with the Third Reich's scientific minds. These were the brains behind the Nazis' once-indomitable war machine. So began Operation Paperclip, a decades-long, covert project to bring Hitler's scientists and their families to the United States.Many of these men were accused of war crimes, and others had stood trial at Nuremberg; one was convicted of mass murder and slavery. They were also directly responsible for major advances in rocketry, medical treatments, and the U.S. space program. Was Operation Paperclip a moral outrage, or did it help America win the Cold War?Drawing on exclusive interviews with dozens of Paperclip family members, colleagues, and interrogators, and with access to German archival documents (including previously unseen papers made available by direct descendants of the Third Reich's ranking members), files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, and dossiers discovered in government archives and at Harvard University, Annie Jacobsen follows more than a dozen German scientists through their postwar lives and into a startling, complex, nefarious, and jealously guarded government secret of the twentieth century.In this definitive, controversial look at one of America's most strategic, and disturbing, government programs, Jacobsen shows just how dark government can get in the name of national security.

A series of essays by the Columbia University professor emeritus and author of Dreams and Delusions: The Drama of German History explores Germany in the first half of the nineteenth century--a country that produced Einstein and many other great thinkers and could have dominated the century had it not succumbed to Nazism. (view table of contents)

Product Description: The dismissal of civil servants on racist or political grounds in April 1933 marked the beginning of a massive, forced exodus of mainly Jewish scholars and scientists from Nazi Germany--a phenomenon unprecedented in the modern history of academic life...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: In the 1930s, with the rise of fascism, European intellectuals sought refuge in the United States. Many came to be affiliated with the University in Exile. This book presents the intellectual history of that group, documenting their experiences and influence on European and American thought...read more

Charges that the U.S. government put Nazi scientists to work in America after World War II