Hitler's Scientists: Science, War and the Devil's Pact
Written by John Cornwell
Narrated by Simon Prebble
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
After Hitler came into power in 1933, science and technology were quickly pressed into service by racist, xenophobic idealologies. From 1939 to the war's end, scientists working under military control began research on nuclear chain reaction with the prospect of arming Hitler with an atomic bomb. By 1943, few areas of German science, technology, and industry had not been experimentation and mass killing.
How German scientists behaved in the era spanning the beginning of the First War and the end of the Second raises many questions, disturbing and relevant to this day, about how scientist act under pressure of social and political circumstances and events. In pondering the moral and political predicament of the unregulated pursuit of scientific progress, Hitler's Scientist today prompts uncomfortable parallels with the past.
John Cornwell
John Cornwell is an award winning journalist and author. Hitler’s Pope was an international best-seller, and he won the non-fiction Gold Dagger Award for Earth to Earth, the story of a West Country family tragedy. His recent history, Hitler’s Scientists: Science, War and the Devil‘s Pact, won the Science and Medical Network book of the year prize for 2005.
Related to Hitler's Scientists
Related audiobooks
At the Heart of the Reich: The Secret Diary of Hitler’s Army Adjutant Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Secret Army: A Hidden History of Spies, Saboteurs, and Traitors in World War II Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hitler Book: The Secret Dossier Prepared for Stalin from the Interrogations of Hitler's Personal Aides Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Winter of the Weimar Republic: The Rise of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Iron Wind: Europe Under Hitler Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Young Hitler: The Making of the Führer Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Compromises: Coercion and Consensus in Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fall of Berlin 1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Speer: Hitler's Architect Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's True Believers: How Ordinary People Became Nazis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hitler: Downfall: 1939-1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eight Days in May: The Final Collapse of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Goering: The Rise and Fall of the Notorious Nazi Leader Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing Hitler: The Plots, the Assassins, and the Dictator Who Cheated Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Children: Sons and Daughters of Third Reich Leaders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Soldiers: The German Army in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Plots Against Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hell and Good Company: The Spanish Civil War and the World it Made Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deathride: Hitler vs. Stalin---the Eastern Front, 1941-1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Women Who Flew for Hitler: A True Story of Soaring Ambition and Searing Rivalry Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5After Hitler: The Last Ten Days of World War II in Europe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prologue to Annihilation: Ordinary American and British Jews Challenge the Third Reich Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChasing Heisenberg: The Race for the Atom Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Wars & Military For You
77 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When I Come Home Again: 'A page-turning literary gem' THE TIMES, BEST BOOKS OF 2020 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Five Rings Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kill Anything That Moves Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Korean War: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Saved: A War Reporter's Mission to Make It Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Palestine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Diary of Anne Frank Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rape of Nanking: The History and Legacy of the Notorious Massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin - Book Summary: How U.S. Navy SEALS Lead And Win Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Watchmaker's Daughter: The True Story of World War II Heroine Corrie ten Boom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Hitler's Scientists
101 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It was ok, I found it to be disjointed and hard to follow. The name of the book leads you to think this would be more about Hitler, his belief in the occult and the atrocities he committed. It touched on these things but I was dissatisfied.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Every person working in science and technology, be it in public inside or universities or in R&D teams of private corporations should read this book. Actually, I myself being an engineer and consulting for the industry, I strongly advise that all curricula should have a course on ETHICS.
It is the first thing I discuss with my students at the undergraduate level or at the MBA. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Best line in book. People first scientists second. Every researcher should read this book
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An worthwhile examination of the philosophy and ethics of scientists in Nazi Germany and the relevant lessons for today.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great read, compelling at times but becomes a little stale in the last eight of the book where his opinions encourage speed reading.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excellent, but should have stopped at section seven of perhaps six. The last sections are written as if the author is trying to fill pages, not with the same interest as the first part of the book.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5This work bounces around and repeats itself continuously. Cornwell conducts solid research, yet spins everything in a way that seems juvenile and unnecessary.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This was much drier than I had expected.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pleasantly surprised with this one. Title seemed indicative of an exploitative 'oh-the-horror' book, but this was a well-researched analysis of the ethical dilemmas which faced the brilliant German scientists of the era. Covers several technical areas, and eras ranging from WWI (Fritz Haber is an especially interesting case) to the Cold War. Hitler's astonishing ignorance of technical affairs played a role in Germany's misapplied research programs in WW2.
A necessary and interesting book.