The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Ratings4
Average rating4.8
The definitive history of nuclear weapons—from the turn-of-the-century discovery of nuclear energy to J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project—this epic work details the science, the people, and the sociopolitical realities that led to the development of the atomic bomb.
This sweeping account begins in the 19th century, with the discovery of nuclear fission, and continues to World War Two and the Americans’ race to beat Hitler’s Nazis. That competition launched the Manhattan Project and the nearly overnight construction of a vast military-industrial complex that culminated in the fateful dropping of the first bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Reading like a character-driven suspense novel, the book introduces the players in this saga of physics, politics, and human psychology—from FDR and Einstein to the visionary scientists who pioneered quantum theory and the application of thermonuclear fission, including Planck, Szilard, Bohr, Oppenheimer, Fermi, Teller, Meitner, von Neumann, and Lawrence.
From nuclear power’s earliest foreshadowing in the work of H.G. Wells to the bright glare of Trinity at Alamogordo and the arms race of the Cold War, this dread invention forever changed the course of human history, and The Making of The Atomic Bomb provides a panoramic backdrop for that story.
Richard Rhodes’s ability to craft compelling biographical portraits is matched only by his rigorous scholarship. Told in rich human, political, and scientific detail that any reader can follow, The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a thought-provoking and masterful work.
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“And I have become death, destroyer of worlds”
This book is the bible for how the Atomic Bomb was created. It starts of in the dawn of the atomic model, before scientists knew that the atom could actually be split. The book follows from the early 19th hundreds through the first war and to the beginning of the second world war and how the whole atomic business got into the move.
Absolutely fascinating read about what a humungous project this was. With ten thousands of people and enormous factories.
It also gives the harsh opposite side. Up to the dropping of the first bomb it just describes the whole creation, it then gives a long eye witness description. This really shows the horrors of this bomb and how it just not comparable to any other bombings (even to the fire bombings of Tokyo).
If there is one thing I might complain about, it is that Nagasaki just gets too little time in the book. It pretty much is “bomb dropped” and the the way how Japan capitulated. There is sadly no part of eye witness reports from the Nagasaki bombing.
Overall a must read in my opinion. Highly recommended
