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The Warhead: The Quest to Build the Perfect Weapon in the Age of Modern Warfare

by Jeffrey E. Stern

A weapon traced through lives and turning points

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Awards & Recognition

  • Editorial selection

    An Apple Best Book of the Month

    Named an Apple Best Book of the Month.

AlbakiReads Editorial

A weapon traced through lives and turning points

Jeffrey E. Stern traces Paveway, described as the first “smart” bomb, through seven interconnected stories spanning the latter half of the twentieth century. The account links its development to figures and episodes including the Kennedys, Operation Paperclip, the Apollo mission and the Challenger disaster, while also following its connections to GPS and personal computing. Paveway was conceived as a more precise weapon intended to reduce civilian casualties; the book examines the more complex consequences of that aim and the bomb’s place in the emergence of modern warfare. Its structure places weapons history alongside the people and historical events touched by the technology.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in the history of U.S. warfare and military technology
  • Readers curious about the links among weapons development, GPS and personal computing
  • Readers who prefer historical accounts organized around connected people and events

Themes

Smart weapons and precision warfareCivilian consequences of military technologyTechnology and historical changeU.S. history in the latter half of the twentieth century

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

An Apple Best Book of the Month

From award-winning journalist and coauthor of The 15:17 to Paris, an affecting human history of the first self-steering bomb


Paveway, the first "smart" bomb, was created to be a more precise and ostensibly humane weapon, reducing civilian casualties. The true impact of the bomb, however, is ever more complex and unpredictable.

In The Warhead, Jeffrey Stern tells the story of Paveway through the lives of seven interconnected stories. They're stories of Nazis, Kennedys, Operation Paperclip, and Walt Disney; of the Apollo mission and the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Paveway inadvertently sparked the personal computing revolution and the adoption of GPS, it ushered in the era of modern warfare, and it shows up at critical historical moments throughout the last half century.

At once revelatory and deeply human, The Warhead unearths the complicated truth behind one of the most significant weapons of our time.
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