This text examines, in a somewhat structural manner focused on organization and mission, the United States defenses against ballistic missile attack. The topic is inherently interesting as its present existence is predicated on North Korea's rise as a renegade nuclear power, unrestrained by the always dubious doctrine of mutually assured destruction. It is somewhat technical and dry in its presentation, but if you are familiar with the literature in this field, you might be grateful for the writer's refusal to romanticize or dramatize his source materials. It is certainly worth your time if you are a student of either the evolving science of ballistic missile defense or the threats inherent in modern technology in the hands of irresponsible foreign governments.

This was a great look at not only the history of missile defense, but the people behind keeping us safe. The technology mixed with humanity made this for a gripping story.

I generally don't like giving books negative reviews, but I couldn't find anything to like here. Every time I tried, I was let down.

The narrative sections read so laughably bad, like a poorly written young adult novel. How many times can we say "Go weapons free!" That's cool, right?

There were several times where I thought the author was going to say something substantive. I gave up when his description of North Korean missile upgrades was that they were "lighter." No more complexity than that - just "lighter." You're writing a book about missiles. About 4 seconds on Wikipedia will give me better information.

I'm a pretty avid North Korea watcher, and I can tell you there are several podcasts on missile launches that will give you more and better information in 30 minutes than is to be found in this entire book.

I realize the focus of this book is on the people doing the missile defense - but at the end of the book all I know is a few names, that they went to train in Colorado, and that they prefer 8 hours shifts to 12 hours shifts. Should I ever visit Alaska, this book told me more about the few restaurants near the missile base than I ever needed to know. Do you really need to bring up chapters later after telling me that they just got internet that Uber doesn't service the area? I think I could have figured that out.

There were so many moments where interesting points could have been explored. Expand on the history of nuclear war, talk about Operation Paperclip instead of just name dropping one scientist, compare anything you're writing about to the Russian missile defense system instead of vaguely mentioning that it exists. Instead of saying that there are critics of land based missile systems, talk about what their criticisms are. Are they valid? Are they not? Talk about what the other forms of defense are. You vaguely mention sea-based and space-based (and in the epilogue, plane-launched) defenses exist, but you give zero detail about them or whether they might be better, worse, or more appropriate for different scenarios. Come on! Give me SOMETHING!

I didn't feel like the author was an expert on the material he was covering (which, according to his bio, he should be!). I think the most disappointed I got was when the author brought up cold weather training. Finally! Something of substance! But no, he just mentioned that one of the soldiers went to the training and the chapter abruptly ends.

As I said, I don't like beating up on books because I do feel bad for the authors, but I had the thought halfway through "I could have learned all of this from a few news articles..." and I wasn't disappointed when I got to the bibliography and found out, well, aside from interviews with soldiers about the hot dog stands in Alaska, that was pretty much the depth of his research.

I have to be honest, it took me a while to get through this book, as it probably should. This isn't really a light fiction you read at the beach. No, it's the product of extensive technical and historic research, written quite beautifully.
I am in no way an expert in nuclear weapons, but I studied international relations and I have always been fascinated by WMD, their history, and how to govern them. So this book was an interesting insight into some of it and I'm happy I had the chance to read it.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a virtual copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am very grateful to St. Martin's Press for graciously providing me with an advance copy of "The 300: The Inside Story of the Missile Defenders Guarding America Against Nuclear Attack" by Daniel Wasserbly. This text examines, in a somewhat structural manner focused on organization and mission, the United States defenses against ballistic missile attack. The topic is inherently interesting as its present existence is predicated on North Korea's rise as a renegade nuclear power, unrestrained by the always dubious doctrine of MAD (mutually assured
destruction). For those interested in what Ronald Reagan's much maligned "Star Wars" program has evolved into, this is definetly worth examining. It is somewhat technical and dry in its presentation, but if you are familiar with the literature in this field, you might be grateful for the writer's refusal to romanticize or dramatize his source materials. It is certainly worth your time if you are a student of either the evolving science of ballistic missile defense or the threats inherent in modern technology in the hands of irresponsible foreign governments.