“The Pentagon's Brain” by Annie Jacobsen – The Story of DARPA

The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, better-known by its acronym DARPA, is a rather well-guarded secret of the state, and as such draws a lot of suspicion by its very nature.

When such a huge and unknown mass of mystery hangs in the air, it always draws people who want to pierce it and expose its true nature.

There is a certain amount of discrepancy between what people DARPA is all about... while some believe it is exactly what it claims to be and works to improve the country's defences in humane ways, others see it as a shadowed organization with a mandate to develop extremely dangerous and powerful experimental weaponry. And of course, there are all the scenarios in-between.

Annie Jacobsen is a brave journalist who previously reported on Area 51 and has taken it upon herself to shed as much light as she can on DARPA and its history. The culmination of her efforts resulted in the book titled The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency.

From the outset Jacobsen's goals are rather clear: to draw the organization's history from A to Z and air as many of its secrets for the public to see. The writing in the book can be best-classified as something in-between a historical textbook and a novel.

There is a narration that follows events in a chronological order and there are attempts here and there to get the reader invested, but the events, settings and people are described in an accurate, realistic and factual manner.

In other words, it's history book made interesting and easily digestible for those who aren't into that kind of stuff but still want to learn about the topic.

The whole things begins a few years into the Cold War, or more precisely, 1958, when the organization was founded. Jacobsen goes on through the years, explaining how various demands and ambitious have little by little shaped the organization into a synergy of military and scientific technologies.

There are plenty of curious little details strewn about the book, and even though some of them are superfluous they can still be appreciated for the insight they help to provide into certain people's lives.

There are some blanks in the timeline here and there, but that is only to be expected seeing as how DARPA is still very much in existence and is the type of organization that likes to maintain its privacy.

It does feel at times like Jacobsen is conjecturing or jumping to conclusions in favor of pushing forth her own beliefs, but there is relatively little of that when compared to the ton of real, accurate and verified information we are provided, taken from exclusive interviews with inside sources, declassified documents, memos and correspondences.

On the whole, the author does a pretty good job at painting a complete picture of where DARPA came from... however, there is still a lack of iron-clad conclusions as to what it does today, but at least things seem to point to it not being run by a comic book villain.

All in all, Jacobsen has started something very important, and that is making people turn their attention to DARPA. This book is an excellent start to getting acquainted with the organization and its history for those who are interested in it, and hopefully it will prompt more in-depth investigations, perhaps one day lifting the veil of mystery from it forever.

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Annie Jacobsen Personal site Annie Jacobsen is an American journalist, author and editor to the Los Angeles Times Magazine and is best-known for her 2011 book Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base. Her 2014 book, Operation Paperclip was named one of the Best Books of 2014 by the Boston Globe and Apple iBooks.