I was drawn to learning more about Area 51 for a couple of reasons. First, I have an innate curiosity to know about places that are restricted, abandoned, or off limits to the general public. When I see a “keep out” sign, I automatically want to know more about that place and to find out what someone doesn’t want me to know. Books and television documentaries have been a great resource to gain at least some knowledge to satisfy my curiosity. Secondly, my husband, an Air Force veteran, views the world similarly to Fox Mulder. He 100% believes in aliens, which has me wanting to believe as well.

Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base by Annie Jacobsen is incredibly well researched and well written. I commend the amount of time and energy Annie has put into this book. The length alone is a huge feat, but to collect the amount of documentation, the time spent interviewing people, and the effort to compose this book is unimaginable. Honestly, I was primarily hoping to learn about the Roswell incident and the truth about J-Rod. I ended up learning SO MUCH MORE!

Annie starts at the beginning of Area 51’s development; back when there was only the Nevada Test Center out in the desert. If you’re interested in learning about spy planes, this is the book for you. Annie thoroughly describes the progression from the U-2, to the Oxcart, and the SR-71. As I was reading this book, I kept sharing information I learned with my husband. Of course, he already knew most of what I relayed. He was kind enough to dig out a picture of a U-2 that had landed at the Air Force base he was stationed. We have visited the Air Force Museum in...

I have photos, videos, and additional information that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below.
A Book And A Dog ( )

This was a well written book, style-wise, and filled with many photo illustrations but overall, not what I was expecting at all. The author is a graduate of Princeton which is a major socialist indoctrination hub among the Ivy League. She then went on to write for (as editor) the Los Angeles Times Magazine when it was still something people bothered to pick up. The Los Angeles Times is now editorially a subsidiary of the NYT. Given these two strikes against her the book is either a flat-out product of CIA propaganda or she was duped by all her friends at the CIA to print all their “stories” as if they were unquestionably true.
This book links several US Presidents, CIA, US military, and US Atomic Energy Commission’s actions together under the genus of Area 51. The subtitle indicates it is uncensored, but only uncensored in the sense that some things have been recently declassified while much more remains classified from Freedom of Information Requests (FOIA) requests. Basically, Jacobsen says that there are no aliens at the Roswell, NM crash site, that alien remains were not moved to Area 51 and that aliens have no business there anyway since it is off limits and partially contaminated by nuclear fallout. In my reading this is an apology for the CIA for all their past bad actions. Because this is a Princeton alumna writing, the CIA and the Russians are both trying hard to stop WWIII from commencing. This book is really something else and I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone else except maybe for laughs. This list of absurdities is amazing: Francis Gary Powers was a bad pilot who should have killed himself after he was shot down, Bissell (maybe with a sliver of blame to General LeMay) alone was responsible for the Bay of Pigs fiasco, John F. Kennedy just died one day, President Johnson got caught red handed spying by the USS Pueblo getting boarded and seized by the North Koreans, President Johnson had a great idea out of nowhere to escalate the Vietnam War after the so called “Gulf of Tonkin incident”, Russian MIG designs were able to materialize out of thin air to challenge US Air Force fighter jets in Korea, CIA chief Angleton became demented looking for a way out of his own "wilderness of mirrors", the Space Race was an American reaction to Russian rocket satellite superiority after Sputnik. This book has lots of notes which are good have in one place and a decent index. Jacobsen burned a lot of midnight oil to assemble this unorganized hunk of the book. I’m not sure if Jacobsen felt she found her purpose at the conclusion, but I was sure ready to end this saga after 384 pages. Whew!

Annie Jacobsen takes a journalistic look at the history of Area 51 in the Nevada desert using declassified documents, Freedom of Information requests, and interviews. Well, it is mostly journalistic and mostly history, avoiding many of the well-worn conspiracy theories. There is at least one outlandish claim that cannot be proven.

I enjoyed the history of the Cold War, nuclear testing, military vehicles, espionage, pilots and their various experiences, and disputes between the CIA and the Air Force. Where it falls down is the sensationalistic inclusion of the Roswell Incident and an account from one of her interviewees. Since there is no way to corroborate his statements, one questions the advisability of including it in a journalistic account, though it probably helps sell books.

The audio book is read by the author. Her pronunciation is occasionally off. I liked some parts of the book, primarily the history, and rolled my eyes at others.
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Really interesting and well-researched book. Learned a lot of disturbing stuff about how many reckless nuclear tests the US has conducted over the decades. ( )

I have to say, I admired how the author attacked the subject matter of this book, and it seems she had mulitple sources for most of the material. And even if a fifth of this book is close to the mark, it's terrifying. The amazing tests (almost blowing a hole in the ozone layer, pilots flying through the mushroom clouds of exploded atom bombs), the stupidity of politicians and others in charge, the total disregard for the planet and life on it.

As I read this book, I kept thinking a Hollywood producer should snap this up. There's at least three different sections that would make for riveting television series.

And then, toward the end, Jacobsen seems to veer off into the conspiracy theories she seemed so careful to avoid for the majority of the book. When she gets to the Roswell incident of 1947, it's almost all conjecture. It's fascinating conjecture, but conjecture all the same. And it seems to defy logic.

Jacobsen spends most of the book detailing the various espionage efforts of the US to get intelligence from Russian flyovers. Great. Fine. We all know about how that turned out for Gary Powers. But then to indicate that Russia had hover and fly capabilities in a flying saucer vehicle...in 1947...and never ever expanded on it or ever used it again? For the next 70 years? Nah. Don't buy it.

But read the book. It's fascinating stuff. ( )