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

Annie Jacobsen

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Summary

Area 51

By: Annie Jacobsen

Narrarated by: Annie Jacobsen

Myths and hypotheses about Area 51 have long abounded, thanks to the intense secrecy enveloping it. Some claim it is home to aliens, underground tunnel systems, and nuclear facilities. Others believe that the lunar landing was filmed there.

The prevalence of these rumors stems from the fact that no credible insider has ever divulged the truth about his time inside the base. Until now.

Annie Jacobsen had exclusive access to twenty men who served on the base proudly and secretly for decades and are now aged seventy-five to ninety-two; she also had unprecedented access to fifty-five additional military and intelligence personnel, scientists, pilots, and engineers linked to the secret base, thirty-two of whom lived and worked there for extended periods. In Area 51, Jacobsen shows us what has really gone on in the Nevada desert, from testing nuclear weapons to building supersecret supersonic jets to pursuing the War on Terror.

This is the first book based on interviews with eyewitnesses to Area 51 history, which makes it the seminal work on the subject. Filled with formerly classified information that has never been accurately decoded for the public, Area 51 weaves the mysterious activities of the top secret base into a gripping narrative, showing that fact is often more fantastic than fiction, especially when the distinction is almost impossible to make.

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Audiobook Information
EDITOR'S PICK // New York Times Best Seller
  • Edition: Unabridged
  • Author: Annie Jacobsen (See All Books)
  • Date Released: May 17, 2011
  • Publisher: Little, Brown
  • Genre: History, United States History

Total File Size: 444 MB (15 files) Total Length: 16 Hours, 10 Minutes

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06.29.11
Annie Jacobsen, Area 51
2011 | Label: Little, Brown

Welcome to Earth

The truth is supposed to be out there, right? If you thought the popular Roswell myth — that a flying saucer full of aliens crash-landed in the Nevada desert, triggering a massive cover-up — was a lot to swallow, wait ’til you get a load of the alternate version spelled out by an anonymous source in Area 51. Here’s the gist, and I don’t think I’m giving too much away: The saucer was built by the Soviets, designed by ex-Nazi scientists and filled with child-pilots somehow deformed to resemble aliens by concentration camp super-villain Dr. Josef Mengele, and then it was crashed onto U.S. soil to scare the shit out of us capitalist pigs, only the government covered it up because we had our own equally nefarious programs in the works, too.

If that’s the truth it’s, like, waaaaay out there. And it’s just the flashiest bombshell to drop in Annie Jacobsen’s fascinating non-fiction(?) biography of America’s top secret military playground less than 100 miles outside of Las Vegas. Via interviews with trustworthy-seeming employees of various ranks and clearances stationed at the base, she gets the dirt on top secret spy missions over Moscow, experimental crafts, downed pilots, the genesis of stealth and drone technology, an unfathomable number of nuclear bomb tests, and no extra terrestrials. It’s scary, gripping stuff that still resonates long after the conspiratorial craziness of the Cold War came to an end. It did end, right? I want to believe.

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Interesting, and awesome

jkipker

Jacobsen has done an amazing job here of writing a massively accessible work on a topic that's been polarizing for decades. Naysayers may tout this as purely fiction, and perhaps small portions are where Jacobsen had to fill in the gaps to finish her book. However, there is too much here that just follows common sense to be false. The descriptions of the intertwined and battling bureaucracies between the CIA and Airforce and how so many things were triggered from that in reality wouldn't need to be made up. How it is portrayed in this book coincides with human nature and makes too much sense against the historical time line that we know of to be untrue. Again, great book worth at least 1 listen through in my opinion. Thanks.

user avatar

Not so unreasonable

grumpiestmonkey

A meticulously written and well researched book that provides an alternative set of explanations to the rumors that have surrounded Area 51 for years. It's a fairly engrossing listen, and Jacobsen does a good job of suggesting some extremely unsettling possibilities without delving into paranoid fantasies. You just might dig it.

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Stunning Nonsense

Shelley

Simply stunning nonsense, tailored for that growing sector of the American public that will fall hook, line, and sinker for the most absurd narratives of fiction peddled as the truth. Say good-bye to critical thinking. Under the guise of sound journalism the author takes it upon herself to parrot one source, rather than triangulating her facts as a professional journalist would. What's left, in particular in the closing chapters when the book would have otherwise been somewhat dry and meager, is pure science fiction. If you're your prone to believe in the tooth fairy, read it as the gospel.

user avatar

Read it and weep for democracy

gratefulmargin

Wow, this is an amazing book. The actual content is impressive and sometimes shocking. But what has stayed with me is the rather depressing sense of how much we don't know about what our government is doing. And it offers additional insight into the workings of the military industrial complex.

user avatar

Stunning!

cscripter

Well written and read by author. I knew about the planes, but the rest I found stunning. A lot of emotions play around in the mind after hearing this book.