Area 51 – An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base is without a doubt the longest title of any book I’ve read in the last five years.

This 2011 title is also a thorough and engrossing recounting of the military base dating back to the 1940s, using both declassified documents and interviews from the men who worked there, some now in their 90s, to paint a still-incomplete picture of what happened–and still happens–there.

Author Annie Jacobsen does a stellar job with this, following a mainly chronological progression through Area 51’s history, venturing off to related matters when relevant and covering the politics that always served as the backdrop, from the end of World War II through the Cold War and on to the present-day where unmanned drones do the surveillance and unleash rocket-propelled judgment in one deadly (and expensive) package.

Area 51’s most infamous connection is to the 1947 crash of a flying disc near Roswell, New Mexico. Jacobsen addresses this and it forms one of the lingering puzzles of the base. More on that later.

The main focus is on the secret testing done mainly by the CIA, the U.S. Air Force and the Atomic Energy Commission (renamed several times, presently the Department of Energy). The first two conducted extensive tests on stealth planes, starting with the U-2 and the A12 “Oxcart”, jets designed to fly at unheard of heights–as much as 90,000 feet–and faster than any other aircraft, with speeds reaching up to mach 3. The first striking part about these tests is how relatively ineffective the stealth part was, even after many years of development and billions of dollars spent. Both jets were regularly spotted and sometimes shot down, though the data they provided was invaluable to the U.S.  It wasn’t until the 1980s that stealth technology really advanced with the F117a.

The second and more grimly striking part of the testing were the astonishing number of crashes and fatalities, with more than one pilot dying due to malfunctioning equipment while ejecting.

While the CIA and Air Force built planes in secret, the Atomic Energy Commission was testing atomic bombs–lots of atomic bombs, with yields many times greater than those dropped on Japan. I found myself repeatedly shaking my head over how utterly reckless these tests were. A dirty bomb simulation exploded radioactive material mere miles from Area 51, with no protection offered to anyone working there. The debris was never even cleaned up, just cordoned off with signs and fencing. One atomic bomb was exploded directly in the ozone layer, even though the scientists conducting the test had no idea what might happen.

Today a large swath of the Nevada desert looks like a moonscape, the ground dotted with dozens of craters from dozens of bomb tests. It’s a wonder the state doesn’t glow at night.

And what of Roswell? Jacobsen doesn’t spend much time on it but does drop a few interesting and somewhat conflicting accounts from those who worked there. Some insist they saw craft and bodies that were unmistakably alien. But Jacobsen puts forward a more prosaic view, that the flying disc was a craft designed in Stalin’s Soviet Union sent to the U.S. to frighten or warn the U.S. government. The aliens? Genetically or surgically modified children made to look like aliens, to scare everyone or something. The unusual flight characteristics of the disc–its ability to hover in defiance of gravity, to move rapidly and silently–are never explained. Nor is it explained that if this was Soviet technology why it was never seen nor heard from again, nor why any other country has ever developed anything like it. If one were paranoid, one might think there was some kind of cover-up going on.

The lingering impression that Area 51 leaves me with is one of discomfort. A lot of dangerous testing and experimentation has taken place there and much of it remains classified, with even the U.S. President often declared not having a “need to know”. This kind of ultra-secrecy, where projects are “born classified” is not healthy for a democratic society nor for the world in general. Edward Snowden may have famously blown the lid off the NSA last year but what went on and still goes on at Area 51 (still never officially acknowledged as existing) is more insidious and dangerous.

Jacobsen concludes with a chilling interview with an unidentified engineer who hints broadly at a huge number of horrifying experiments on humans (think Nazis in WWII) conducted at Area 51 and elsewhere in the U.S. that went on at least through the 1980s and could still be happening today.

Area 51 is a comprehensive and meticulously researched look at the world’s most infamous military base. It neatly captures everything from the camaraderie of test pilots flying experimental craft that guaranteed no safe landings to the blatant disregard for safety in the hundreds of nuclear weapons tests. Highly recommended.