The Franklin D. Roosevelt
Presidential Library and Museum
presents an author talk and signing
with
Tom Shachtman author of
TERRORS AND MARVELS:
HOW SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
CHANGED THE CHARACTER AND
OUTCOME OF WORLD WAR II
Wednesday, July 25, 2018 at 7:00 p.m.
Henry A. Wallace Center at the
FDR Presidential Library and Home
HYDE PARK, NY -- The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum presents an author talk and book signing with
Tom Shachtman
author of
TERRORS AND MARVELS: HOW SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CHANGED THE CHARACTER AND OUTCOME OF WORLD WAR II
at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 25, 2018 in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home. Following the presentation, Shachtman will be available to sign copies of his book.
Registration is required for this free public program.
The Second World War was more than the clashing of great armies on bloody battlefields. A different kind of war was being waged in the secret laboratories on both sides of the conflict -- a war that would alter the course and determine the outcome of the bitter hostilities, forever changing our world and future.
TERRORS AND MARVELS
chronicles World War II's forgotten combatants: the engineers, physicists, chemists, and academics whose contributions to the war effort were as important as the noble sacrifices of the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who bravely risked their lives. While it is a widely accepted fact that America's development and employment of the atomic bomb ended the Pacific struggle -- and that the failure of Hitler's scientists to develop their own A-bomb helped to doom Germany -- little note has been made of the other remarkable scientific accomplishments of this dark and terrible epoch.
Beginning with an overview of the Depression-era struggle to establish scientific and military alliances that would ultimately enable the Allies to catch up to the Axis's early dominance, TERRORS AND MARVELS offers a detailed history of the furious battles for technological superiority covertly waged by the world's most brilliant minds. From the creation of faster, deadlier jets and rockets to the development of biological, chemical, and electronic warfare -- from astonishing advances in medical science to breakthroughs in radar and decoding -- the successes and failures that occurred in top-secret facilities around the world in the early 1940s never made headlines but often determined triumph and defeat.
Here, also, are the intensely human stories of the architects of the terrifying war machines -- men and women of rare intelligence and integrity torn by the conflicting demands of conscience and country, haunted by their roles in the use and abuse of powerful science.
Tom Shachtman
has written or co-authored more than thirty-five books. He is the author of GENTLEMEN SCIENTISTS AND REVOLUTIONARIES, ABSOLUTE ZERO AND THE CONQUEST OF COLD, and three books with FBI chief profiler Robert K. Ressler, including the international bestseller WHOEVER FIGHTS MONSTERS. He has also written documentaries for ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and BBC, and has taught at New York University and lectured at Harvard, Stanford, Georgia Tech, the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian's National History Museum. Among his documentaries are six programs in the CBS science and technology series THE 21ST CENTURY. He is a former chairman of The Writers Room, a trustee of the Connecticut Humanities Council, a founding director of the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area, and is currently a consultant to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's science and technology initiatives.
Please contact Cliff Laube at (845) 486-7745 with questions about the event.
