The Building: A Biography of the Pentagon

by David Alexander

It's one thing to write an appreciative history of the Pentagon that hews to the official viewpoint and rarely deviates from orthodoxy. It's another to write an account that pulls no punches and genuflects to nobody, that respects no authority higher than the absolute truth.

David Alexander has written such a book. He has practically singlehandedly ferreted out the ground truth that makes up both literal and figurative foundations of The Building. He has written the truth when the truth was noble, and he has also written the truth when it was less than noble. But he has always upheld the truth as his only guide.

David Alexander has also brought his keen and discriminating eye for lyrical prose to his account of the Pentagon, truly making this outstanding work of nonfiction "history as the novel, the novel as history."

Alexander has also departed from a standard chronological approach to narrative history. In tackling as large and ambitious a project as The Building, Alexander developed a writing plan that replaced an easy and often-used sequential storyline approach with a more complex narrative scheme that was designed to give far greater scope and depth to the narrative he envisioned for his book. It seemed the only approach worthy of a subject as large, as timely, as challenging and as supremely important as the Pentagon, the Defense Department and the global wars in which these icons of military power and global reach have played key and decisive strategic roles.

In telling the Pentagon's story Alexander abandoned the strict chronological storytelling format characteristic of other works and wove together a tapestry in prose that drew on disciplines ranging from the technicalities of the building construction trades, to the secrets of stealth warfare, to the intricacies of foreign policy, to the stratagems and behind-the-scenes gambits of international leadership, to the workings of the defense firms that together make up the global defense sector. Nor has he left out detailed coverage of the diverse personalities from Franklin Roosevelt to Robert Gates who envisioned, built and guided the actions and policies of the Pentagon from its origins to its present day operations, and who have launched it into the future.

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

David Alexander began writing early in life and began writing uncoaxed and spontaneously. His fledgling appearance in print dates to a sonnet published in a New York City daily newspaper when David was in elementary school in Brooklyn. Between then and today, he has written and published in virtually every literary category, including novels, novelettes, short fiction, poetry, essays and film scripts. He received his early education via the New York City public school system. He later attended Columbia University in New York City and Sorbonne University in Paris, France.

In addition to fiction and creative nonfiction, Alexander has written technical papers as a defense analyst for some of the world's most prestigious international defense publications on high-technology combat systems and their strategic and tactical applications. He is as conversant with the global corporate and civilian defense sector as he is with the military side. Few can justly claim the scope and breadth of his knowledge of and familiarity with the international defense community, ranging from weapon systems to global strategic policy.

As an author, Alexander can justly claim to have pulled himself up by his own bootstraps. Never has he benefited from anybody's patronage. There have been no wealthy relatives with connections, no connections by marriage; no favors traded in secret, no hooked-up friends to fast-track his career. Nor has anybody but David Alexander penned the titles published over David Alexander's byline. Alexander is a resident of Brooklyn Heights, where he has lived and written for many years.

Reviews

[James J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clearly and intelligently written. Informs and is a delight to read. While factual, it could have been a novel, and benefits tremendously in readability by having been penned by a novelist.

[Mark Clarkson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never thought I would enjoy reading a book about building a building, but this was one onf my all time favorite reads