Download or read book Pentagons and Pentagrams written by Eli Maor and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-09-27 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating exploration of the pentagon and its role in various cultures The pentagon and its close cousin, the pentagram, have inspired individuals for the last two and half millennia, from mathematicians and philosophers to artists and naturalists. Despite the pentagon’s wide-ranging history, no single book has explored the important role of this shape in various cultures, until now. Richly illustrated, Pentagons and Pentagrams offers a sweeping view of the five-sided polygon, revealing its intriguing geometric properties and its essential influence on a variety of fields. Traversing time, Eli Maor narrates vivid stories, both celebrated and unknown, about the pentagon and pentagram. He discusses the early Pythagoreans, who ascribed to the pentagon mythical attributes, adopted it as their emblem, and figured out its construction with a straightedge and compass. Maor looks at how a San Diego housewife uncovered four previously unknown types of pentagonal tilings, and how in 1982 a scientist’s discovery of fivefold symmetries in certain alloys caused an uproar in crystallography and led to a Nobel Prize. Maor also discusses the pentagon’s impact on many buildings, from medieval fortresses to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Eugen Jost’s superb illustrations provide sumptuous visual context, and the book’s puzzles and mazes offer fun challenges for readers, with solutions given in an appendix.

Download or read book Pentagons and Pentagrams written by Eli Maor and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-09-27 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating exploration of the pentagon and its role in various cultures The pentagon and its close cousin, the pentagram, have inspired individuals for the last two and half millennia, from mathematicians and philosophers to artists and naturalists. Despite the pentagon’s wide-ranging history, no single book has explored the important role of this shape in various cultures, until now. Richly illustrated, Pentagons and Pentagrams offers a sweeping view of the five-sided polygon, revealing its intriguing geometric properties and its essential influence on a variety of fields. Traversing time, Eli Maor narrates vivid stories, both celebrated and unknown, about the pentagon and pentagram. He discusses the early Pythagoreans, who ascribed to the pentagon mythical attributes, adopted it as their emblem, and figured out its construction with a straightedge and compass. Maor looks at how a San Diego housewife uncovered four previously unknown types of pentagonal tilings, and how in 1982 a scientist’s discovery of fivefold symmetries in certain alloys caused an uproar in crystallography and led to a Nobel Prize. Maor also discusses the pentagon’s impact on many buildings, from medieval fortresses to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Eugen Jost’s superb illustrations provide sumptuous visual context, and the book’s puzzles and mazes offer fun challenges for readers, with solutions given in an appendix.

Download or read book The Pentagon s Brain written by Annie Jacobsen and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, in this Pulitzer Prize finalist from the author of the New York Times bestseller Area 51. No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain," from its Cold War inception in 1958 to the present. This is the book on DARPA -- a compelling narrative about this clandestine intersection of science and the American military and the often frightening results.

Download or read book Inside the Five Sided Box written by Ash Carter and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter takes readers behind the scenes to reveal the inner workings of the Pentagon, its vital mission, and what it takes to lead it. The Pentagon is the headquarters of the single largest institution in America: the Department of Defense. The D.O.D. employs millions of Americans. It owns and operates more real estate, and spends more money, than any other entity. It manages the world’s largest and most complex information network and performs more R&D than Apple, Google, and Microsoft combined. Most important, the policies it carries out, in war and peace, impact the security and freedom of billions of people around the globe. Yet to most Americans, the dealings of the D.O.D. are a mystery, and the Pentagon nothing more than an opaque five-sided box that they regard with a mixture of awe and suspicion. In this new book, former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter demystifies the Pentagon and sheds light on all that happens inside one of the nation’s most iconic, and most closely guarded, buildings. Drawn from Carter’s thirty-six years of leadership experience in the D.O.D., this is the essential book for understanding the challenge of defending America in a dangerous world—and imparting a trove of incisive lessons that can guide leaders in any complex organization. In these times of great disruption and danger, the need for Ash Carter’s authoritative and pragmatic account is more urgent than ever.

Download or read book The Pentagon s New Map written by Thomas P.M. Barnett and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2005-05-03 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the end of the Cold War, America's national security establishment has been searching for a new operating theory to explain how this seemingly "chaotic" world actually works. Gone is the clash of blocs, but replaced by what? Thomas Barnett has the answers. A senior military analyst with the U.S. Naval War College, he has given a constant stream of briefings over the past few years, and particularly since 9/11, to the highest of high-level civilian and military policymakers-and now he gives it to you. The Pentagon's New Map is a cutting-edge approach to globalization that combines security, economic, political, and cultural factors to do no less than predict and explain the nature of war and peace in the twenty-first century. Building on the works of Friedman, Huntington, and Fukuyama, and then taking a leap beyond, Barnett crystallizes recent American military history and strategy, sets the parameters for where our forces will likely be headed in the future, outlines the unique role that America can and will play in establishing international stability-and provides much-needed hope at a crucial yet uncertain time in world history. For anyone seeking to understand the Iraqs, Afghanistans, and Liberias of the present and future, the intimate new links between foreign policy and national security, and the operational realities of the world as it exists today, The Pentagon's New Map is a template, a Rosetta stone. Agree with it, disagree with it, argue with it-there is no book more essential for 2004 and beyond.

Download or read book The Pentagon Climate Change and War written by Neta C. Crawford and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2022-10-04 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the Pentagon became the world’s largest single greenhouse gas emitter and why it’s not too late to break the link between national security and fossil fuel consumption. The military has for years (unlike many politicians) acknowledged that climate change is real, creating conditions so extreme that some military officials fear future climate wars. At the same time, the U.S. Department of Defense—military forces and DOD agencies—is the largest single energy consumer in the United States and the world’s largest institutional greenhouse gas emitter. In this eye-opening book, Neta Crawford traces the U.S. military’s growing consumption of energy and calls for a reconceptualization of foreign policy and military doctrine. Only such a rethinking, she argues, will break the link between national security and fossil fuels. The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War shows how the U.S. economy and military together have created a deep and long-term cycle of economic growth, fossil fuel use, and dependency. This cycle has shaped U.S. military doctrine and, over the past fifty years, has driven the mission to protect access to Persian Gulf oil. Crawford shows that even as the U.S. military acknowledged and adapted to human-caused climate change, it resisted reporting its own greenhouse gas emissions. Examining the idea of climate change as a “threat multiplier” in national security, she argues that the United States faces more risk from climate change than from lost access to Persian Gulf oil—or from most military conflicts. The most effective way to cut military emissions, Crawford suggests provocatively, is to rethink U.S. grand strategy, which would enable the United States to reduce the size and operations of the military.

Download or read book Assignment Pentagon written by Perry McCoy Smith and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2020-09 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selected for the 2019 Commandant's Professional Reading List, Assignment: Pentagon takes the reader on an insider's tour of the Pentagon, describing how the headquarters for the world's largest multinational "corporation" functions. The reader gains insights into how this bureaucracy functions as well as the stresses and strains inherent to such a complex organization. Now in its fifth edition, Assignment: Pentagon remains the best practical guide for anyone who works for the Pentagon or any other large bureaucracy. Eminently readable, Assignment: Pentagon is the essential guide for the newly assigned military person, fresh civilian, or interested outsider to the Pentagon's informal set of arrangements, networks, and functions that operate in the service and joint service world. With updated information about jobs and Pentagon vernacular, this fifth edition delivers a wealth of practical advice and helpful hints about surviving the challenges of working in "the Building." If you've been assigned to the Pentagon or are starting work for any large company, you need to read Assignment: Pentagon.

Download or read book The Pentagon s Wars written by Mark Perry and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping insider account of the clash between America's civilian and military leadership The Pentagon's Wars is a dramatic account of the deep and divisive debates between America's civilian leaders and its military officers. Renowned military expert Mark Perry investigates these internal wars and sheds new light on the US military-the most powerful and influential lobby in Washington. He reveals explosive stories, from the secret history of Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy to how the military plotted to undermine Barack Obama's strategy in Afghanistan, to show how internal strife and deep civilian-military animus shapes America's policy abroad, often to the nation's detriment. Drawing on three decades of high-profile interviews, both on and off the record, Perry yields sobering judgments on the tenures of our nation's most important military leaders. The Pentagon's Wars is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the inner workings of the making of America's foreign policy.

Download or read book The Complete Idiot s Guide to the Pentagon written by Jeff Cateau and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2002-10-01 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides an introduction to the command center for United States miliary operations, and discusses the history of the physical structure, its organization, personnel, and some of its residents including the CIA, NSA, and NIMA.

Download or read book The Pentagon written by Steve Vogel and published by Random House. This book was released on 2008-05-27 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The creation of the Pentagon in seventeen whirlwind months during World War II is one of the great construction feats in American history, involving a tremendous mobilization of manpower, resources, and minds. In astonishingly short order, Brigadier General Brehon B. Somervell conceived and built an institution that ranks with the White House, the Vatican, and a handful of other structures as symbols recognized around the world. Now veteran military reporter Steve Vogel reveals for the first time the remarkable story of the Pentagon’s construction, from it’s dramatic birth to its rebuilding after the September 11 attack. At the center of the story is the tempestuous but courtly Somervell–“dynamite in a Tiffany box,” as he was once described. In July 1941, the Army construction chief sprang the idea of building a single, huge headquarters that could house the entire War Department, then scattered in seventeen buildings around Washington. Somervell ordered drawings produced in one weekend and, despite a firestorm of opposition, broke ground two months later, vowing that the building would be finished in little more than a year. Thousands of workers descended on the site, a raffish Virginia neighborhood known as Hell’s Bottom, while an army of draftsmen churned out designs barely one step ahead of their execution. Seven months later the first Pentagon employees skirted seas of mud to move into the building and went to work even as construction roared around them. The colossal Army headquarters helped recast Washington from a sleepy southern town into the bustling center of a reluctant empire. Vivid portraits are drawn of other key figures in the drama, among them Franklin D. Roosevelt, the president who fancied himself an architect; Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall, both desperate for a home for the War Department as the country prepared for battle; Colonel Leslie R. Groves, the ruthless force of nature who oversaw the Pentagon’s construction (as well as the Manhattan Project to create an atomic bomb); and John McShain, the charming and dapper builder who used his relationship with FDR to help land himself the contract for the biggest office building in the world. The Pentagon’s post-World War II history is told through its critical moments, including the troubled birth of the Department of Defense during the Cold War, the tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the tumultuous 1967 protest against the Vietnam War. The pivotal attack on September 11 is related with chilling new detail, as is the race to rebuild the damaged Pentagon, a restoration that echoed the spirit of its creation. This study of a single enigmatic building tells a broader story of modern American history, from the eve of World War II to the new wars of the twenty-first century. Steve Vogel has crafted a dazzling work of military social history that merits comparison with the best works of David Halberstam or David McCullough. Like its namesake, The Pentagon is a true landmark.

Download or read book The Pentagon written by Terri DeGezelle and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2004 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the people and events responsible for building the Pentagon.

Download or read book Operation Hollywood written by David L. Robb and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2011-04-29 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Directors of war and action movies receive access to billions of dollars worth of military equipment and personnel, but it comes with a hidden cost. As a veteran Hollywood journalist shows, the final product is often not just what the director intends but also what the powers-that-be in the military want to project about America's armed forces.

Download or read book Operation Dark Heart written by Anthony Shaffer and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-09-24 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shaffer delivers an exciting, eyewitness account of fighting terrorism in Afghanistan using the military's most cutting-edge espionage tactics. Just before St. Martin's Press release of the book, The Department of Defense and the Defense Intelligence Agency, demanded the author and the publisher produce the book for review. They, and "other interested U.S. intelligence agencies" met with the author to review changes and redactions that they required be made, before the book could be published, in order to "not damage our national security, harm our troops, or harm U.S. military intelligence efforts or assets." Thus, there are sections with redactions in the final book.

Download or read book All Hell Breaking Loose written by Michael T. Klare and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All Hell Breaking Loose is an eye-opening examination of climate change from the perspective of the U.S. military. The Pentagon, unsentimental and politically conservative, might not seem likely to be worried about climate change—still linked, for many people, with polar bears and coral reefs. Yet of all the major institutions in American society, none take climate change as seriously as the U.S. military. Both as participants in climate-triggered conflicts abroad, and as first responders to hurricanes and other disasters on American soil, the armed services are already confronting the impacts of global warming. The military now regards climate change as one of the top threats to American national security—and is busy developing strategies to cope with it. Drawing on previously obscure reports and government documents, renowned security expert Michael Klare shows that the U.S. military sees the climate threat as imperiling the country on several fronts at once. Droughts and food shortages are stoking conflicts in ethnically divided nations, with “climate refugees” producing worldwide havoc. Pandemics and other humanitarian disasters will increasingly require extensive military involvement. The melting Arctic is creating new seaways to defend. And rising seas threaten American cities and military bases themselves. While others still debate the causes of global warming, the Pentagon is intensely focused on its effects. Its response makes it clear that where it counts, the immense impact of climate change is not in doubt.

Download or read book Holding the Line written by Guy M. Snodgrass and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author offers an insider's sometimes shocking account of how Defense Secretary James Mattis led the U.S. military through global challenges while serving as a crucial check on the Trump Administration.

Download or read book Blank Check written by Tim Weiner and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 1990-09-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles, this is a thorough, astonishing expose of the "Black Budget"--a 36-billion-dollar cache used by the Pentagon to fund its own agenda of top-secret weapons and wars.

Download or read book Common Core Math For Parents For Dummies with Videos Online written by Christopher Danielson and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-04-06 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Help your child succeed with a better understanding of Common Core Math Common Core Math For Parents For Dummies is packed with tools and information to help you promote your child's success in math. The grade-by-grade walk-through brings you up to speed on what your child is learning, and the sample problems and video lessons help you become more involved as you study together. You'll learn how to effectively collaborate with teachers and keep tabs on your child's progress, so minor missteps can be corrected quickly, before your child falls behind. The Common Core was designed to improve college- and career-readiness, and to prepare U.S. students to be more competitive on an international stage when it's time to enter the workforce. This guide shows you how the standards were created, and how they've evolved over time to help ensure your child's future success. The Common Core Math Standards prepare students to do real math in the real world. Many new teaching methods are very different from the way most parents learned math, leading to frustration and confusion as parents find themselves unable to help with homework or explain difficult concepts. This book cuts the confusion and shows you everything you need to know to help your child succeed in math. Understand the key concepts being taught in your child's grade Utilize the homework tools that help you help your child Communicate more effectively with your child's teacher Guide your child through sample problems to foster understanding The Common Core was designed to ensure that every student, regardless of location or background, receives the education they need. Math skills are critical to real-world success, and the new standards reflect that reality in scope and rigorousness. Common Core Math For Parents For Dummies helps you help your child succeed.