Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base

I got spoiled by reading Jon Ronson’s books because he makes complex topics palatable, exciting & understandable. Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base has a more traditional nonfiction writing style-a very interesting story told in a very dry fashion. It also doesn’t help that the information is voluminous. I felt like I was drinking from a fire hose. It was more like the history of the American military industrial complex post WWII with tons of upsetting revelations, but there are so many revelations that they become ordinary, forgettable & unsurprising, which is scary because it makes us numb to the things that should outrage us. Human experiments, meh. Thermonuclear explosions that could destroy the ozone layer, whatever. This book only contains the stuff that isn’t classified, which means even though we’re footing the bill, and though it is understandable that some things need to be shielded, the people making that call may be the same people who said, “Hey, lets get some Nazi scientists & do some experiments” (I’m not kidding & sure every major country did it, but STILL). What is problematic: the story is basically a compilation of formerly classified material so it unintentionally tells the story without criticism, reciting it the way that those who classified the information thought of events-so critical of Russia, but proud of us for doing similar things. What I love about this book: it reveals that some of our grandest conspiracy theories about aliens & Roswell are actually pretty prosaic and human. Not a quick read & probably one that would take repeated readings to really sink in.