Burrows, William E. 1937-

PERSONAL: Born March 27, 1937, in Philadelphia, PA; son of Eli and Helen (Marino) Burrows; married Joelle Hodgson (an art historian), November 19, 1966 (marriage ended); children: Lara. Education: Columbia University, B.A., 1960, M.A., 1962. Politics: “Ultra right-wing liberal.”

ADDRESSES: Home—Stamford, CT. Office—Department of Journalism, New York University, 20 Cooper Sq., New York, NY 10003. E-mail—william.burrows@nyu.edu.

CAREER: Journalist, educator, and author. New York Times, New York, NY, news assistant, 1962-65, reporter, 1967-68; Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, VA, reporter, 1965-66; Washington Post, Washington, DC, reporter, 1966-67; Wall Street Journal, New York, NY, reporter, 1968-70; Puerto de Pollensa, Mallorca, Spain, travel writer, 1971-73; New York University, New York, NY, assistant professor of journalism, beginning 1974 (became professor), and founder/director emeritus of graduate Science, Health, and Environmental program.

MEMBER: Century Association, American Astronautical Society.

WRITINGS:

Richthofen: A True History of the Red Baron, Harcourt(New York, NY), 1969.

Vigilante!, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1976.

On Reporting the News, New York University Press(New York, NY), 1977.

Deep Black: Space Espionage and National Security, Random House (New York, NY), 1986.

Exploring Space: Voyages in the Solar System and Beyond, Random House (New York, NY), 1990.

Mission to Deep Space: Voyager’s Journey of Discovery, Scientific American Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 1993.

(With Robert Windrem) Critical Mass: The Dangerous Race for Superweapons in a Fragmenting World, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1994.

This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age, Random House (New York, NY), 1998.

The Infinite Journey: Eyewitness Accounts of NASA and the Space Age, Discovery Books (New York, NY), 2000.

By Any Means Necessary: America’s Secret Air War in the Cold War, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 2001.

The Survival Imperative: Using Space to Protect Earth, Forge Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributing editor, Air & Space. Contributor of articles to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS: The Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union was still in the headlines when journalist William E. Burrows published Deep Black: Space Espionage and National Security. In this 1986 work, Burrows examines how the two superpowers “know all about each other’s deployment and can infer about each other’s intentions,” an Economist reviewer explained. The two reigning superpowers used their respective overhead reconnaissance equipment, which in the case of the United States was a sophisticated satellite nicknamed “Keyhole,” “KH” for short. In 1984 the KH-11 craft picked up a “sunlit orbital photograph of the first large Soviet aircraft carrier, under construction on the Black Sea” from 500 miles away, according to Philip Morrison in a Scientific American review. The Soviets, meanwhile, reportedly launched similar crafts “routinely every couple of weeks,” as Morrison wrote, “and when events suggest it, one every few days. Their style is that of the assembly line: each device delivers relatively low performance, but each is simpler [than its U.S. counterpart], less expensive, adaptable and quickly replaced.”

Calling Burrows a “responsible and savvy journalist,” Morrison praised Deep Black as “an up-to-date, thoughtful, nontechnical, factual study of a topic that lies behind much of the news.” A related volume by Burrows and Robert Windrem, Critical Mass: The Dangerous Race for Superweapons in a Fragmenting World, came out in 1993, three years after India and Pakistan narrowly averted atomic combat. That conflict and others are recounted in what Booklist contributor Gilbert Taylor called a “hair-raising reality check on the status of nuclear proliferation.” “Terrifying” is how Eric Nadler of Nation described the authors’ argument that “while the end of the cold war lessened chances of a global nuclear war, the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the expertise to build them have accelerated dangerously.” Burrows and Windrem list the nuclear-capable countries as of 1993; they included Ukraine, Kazakhstan, China, Israel, India, and North Korea, as well as “active programs” at the time in Iraq, Iran, Libya, and Algeria.

In Critical Mass the authors finger U.S. foreign policy as a contributing factor in worldwide nuclear proliferation. “The last two Republican administrations,” said Nadler, referring to the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush years, “acted with subjectivity and shortsightedness. President Reagan, for example, fended off tough Congressional restrictions on Pakistan as it constructed what that nation’s leaders said was an ‘Islamic bomb.”’ The book also tells the stories of the pilots and crews who risked their lives in those covert campaigns. While noting that the volume might have benefited by being a more “ambitious” work, Beschloss concluded that “Burrows’s book provides a service by giving names and human faces” to the people behind the flights, people whose role in national defense was “often officially denied by [the U.S.] government, who flew crucial missions during the cold war.”

Burrows reaches back into history for another real-life drama. By Any Means Necessary: America’s Secret Air War in the Cold War was released just weeks following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. As a shocking and history-making event, the attacks against America were compared to the Japanese storming of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. As Burrows recounts, U.S. intelligence in 1960 scrambled to stop “a second Pearl Harbor,” Michael Beschloss noted in his New York Times Book Review piece, by sending “American aircraft into the Soviet periphery or, more dangerously, into Soviet airspace to gain crucial information on border installations.” Though these flights had been secretly going on since 1946, the spy missions drew international headlines in 1960 when the U-2 plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers crashed in Soviet territory, sparking fears of an all-out retaliation.

Burrows next looked to the future in The Survival Imperative: Using Space to Protect Earth, proposing that the space program’s focus be diverted from one of unmanned exploration to one of self-sustaining space colonies and catastrophe prevention. Potential disasters discussed in the book are global warming, nuclear war, and large asteroid or comet impacts, with proposed defenses including the development of an international lunar colony. Library Journal reviewer Betty Galbraith remarked: “This well-thought-out work is valuable for envisioning the use of space technology.” Burrows was commended for his “insightful analysis” in a Publishers Weekly review, where his writing was described as “lively” if also somewhat “fragmented.” contributor to Kirkus Reviews found the book “convincing and impassioned.”

“My primary motivations” Burrows once told CA, “are to contribute to my society while challenging myself through my writing and teaching. That means trying to get the best out of myself all the time. I have come to understand in the course of my professional life that ultimate competition is not with others, but with myself, and that is the toughest competition imaginable. I have to live with myself, and be responsible to myself, so if I care about my integrity as an artist and a human being, I need to push up my level of competence all the time. I try to do that by avoiding what is easy or only commercial, and instead attacking what is important and challenging.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Air & Space, December, 2001, review of By Any Means Necessary: America’s Secret Air War in the Cold War, p. 81.

Air Power History, winter, 2001, Rick Sturdevant, review of The Infinite Journey: Eyewitness Accounts of NASA and the Space Age, p. 59.

American History, June, 2002, Steven Martinovich, By Any Means Necessary, p. 70.

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, May, 1989, Leonard Cole, review of Deep Black: Space Espionage and National Security, p. 148.

Astronomy, August, 1987, review of Deep Black, p. 148; April, 2001, review of The Infinite Journey, p. 90.

Booklist, December 15, 1990, review of Exploring Space: Voyages in the Solar System and Beyond, p. 799; November 15, 1993, Carolyn Phelan, review of Mission to Deep Space: Voyager’s Journey of Discovery, p. 615; December 15, 1993, review of Critical Mass: The Dangerous Race for Superweapons in a Fragmenting World, p. 725; October 1, 1998, Roland Green, review of This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age, p. 299.

Books, January, 1988, review of Deep Black, p. 14.

Bookwatch, March, 1994, review of Critical Mass, p. 1.

Choice, July, 1987, review of Deep Black, p. 1750; June, 1991, review of Exploring Space, p. 1658; July-August, 1994, review of Critical Mass, p. 1783; April, 1999, review of This New Ocean, p. 1478; May, 2002, K. Eubank, review of By Any Means Necessary, p. 1646.

Christian Science Monitor, August 7, 1987, review of Deep Black, p. B3; November 1, 2001, review of By Any Means Necessary, p. 18.

Commentary, May, 1987, Angelo Codevilla, review of Deep Black, p. 77.

Comparative Strategy, April-June, 2000, Steven Lam-bakis, review of This New Ocean, p. 197.

Economist, March 19, 1988, review of Deep Black, p. 96.

Encounter, March, 1988, review of Deep Black, p. 36.

Far Eastern Economic Review, May 12, 1994, Ahmed Rashid, review of Critical Mass, p. 46.

Foreign Affairs, number 4, 1987, review of Deep Black, p. 893; May, 1994, review of Critical Mass, p. 157.

Guardian Weekly (London, England), February 26, 1995, review of Critical Mass, p. 36.

International Affairs, October, 1994, Simon Henderson, review of Critical Mass, p. 769.

Issues in Science and Technology, winter, 1988, Robert Pirie, Jr., review of Deep Black, p. 11.

Journal of American History, March, 1992, Richard Hallion, review of Exploring Space, p. 1527.

Journal of Military History, July, 1994, review of Critical Mass, p. 566.

Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 1986, review of Deep Black, p. 1694; November 1, 1999, review of Exploring Space, p. 1507; December 15, 1993, review of Critical Mass, p. 1560; September 1, 1998, review of This New Ocean, p. 1248; July 15, 2001, review of By Any Means Necessary, p. 992; June 15, 2006, review of The Survival Imperative: Using Space to Protect Earth, p. 609.

Library Journal, March 1, 1992, review of Exploring Space, p. 44; January, 1994, review of Critical Mass, p. 140; September 15, 1998, review of This New Ocean, p. 108; February 1, 1999, review of This New Ocean, p. 56; August, 2001, review of By Any Means Necessary, p. 129; August 1, 2006, Betty Gailbraith, review of The Survival Imperative, p. 116.

London Review of Books, October 27, 1988, review of Deep Black, p. 22.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, December 28, 1986, review of Deep Black, p. 7; April 10, 1994, review of Critical Mass, p. 3.

Nation, March 21, 1994, Eric Nadler, review of Critical Mass, p. 382.

Nature, March 4, 1999, review of This New Ocean, p. 35.

New Scientist, June 2, 1988, Norman Dombey, review of Deep Black, p. 58; April 2, 1994, review of Critical Mass, p. 35; February 25, 1995, review of Critical Mass, p. 41; March 6, 1999, review of This New Ocean, p. 46.

New York Times Book Review, February 15, 1987, review of Deep Black, p. 14; June 16, 1991, review of Exploring Space, p. 13; February 6, 1994, review of Critical Mass, p. 7; November 15, 1998, Alex Roland, review of This New Ocean, p. 72; December 16, 2001, Michael Beschloss, “Spies in the Skies,” p. 18.

Orbis, summer, 1987, Adam Garfinkle, review of Deep Black, p. 247.

Publishers Weekly, December 12, 1986, review of Deep Black, p. 47; November 9, 1990, review of Exploring Space, p. 49; December 20, 1993, review of Critical Mass, p. 58; September 14, 1998, review of This New Ocean, p. 63; August 13, 2001, review of By Any Means Necessary, p. 295; May 15, 2006, review of The Survival Imperative, p. 60.

School Library Journal, December, 1993, John Peters, review of Mission to Deep Space, p. 120.

Science Books & Films, September, 1987, review of Deep Black, p. 24; March, 1994, review of Mission to Deep Space, p. 46.

Science Fiction Studies, July, 2000, Doris Witt, “The Final Frontier?,” p. 349.

Science News, September 9, 2006, review of The Survival Imperative, p. 175.

Science Teacher, May, 2001, Sue LeBeau, review of The Infinite Journey, p. 69.

Scientific American, May, 1987, Philip Morrison, review of Deep Black, p. 22.

Sky & Telescope, July, 1991, Mark Washburn, review of Exploring Space, p. 43; April, 1999, review of This New Ocean, p. 84.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), February 12, 1989, review of Deep Black, p. 9.

Wall Street Journal, January 23, 1991, review of Exploring Space, p. A10.

Washington Post Book World, February 15, 1987, review of Deep Black, p. 6; February 3, 1991, review of Exploring Space, p. 13; June 12, 1994, review of Critical Mass, p. 4; November 8, 1998, John Schwartz, review of This New Ocean, p. 8.

West Coast Review of Books, number 4, 1988, review of Deep Black, p. 40.

Wilson Quarterly, spring, 1988, review of Deep Black, p. 149.