The Making of the Atomic Bomb: 25th Anniversary Edition

March 29, 2009 Ardsley, PA THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB provides a valuable insight into the developments within physics and chemistry which directly lead to the Manhattan Project with its parallel development of the first fission bombs and their use against Imperial Japan. In 790 pages, 19 chapters and three parts Richard Rhodes covers every imaginable aspect of the scientific discoveries which brought us into the Atomic Age. Along with the discussions of the developments in Physics and Chemistry we are introduced to the various scientists and laboratories, the major world events and the political decisions that accompanied these developments. Anyone with more than an introductory class in Physics in college will recognize all of the major scientists and much of the physics and chemistry discussed. Highlighted figures include Ernest Rutherford, Marie Curie, Niels Bohr, Enrico Fermi, Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner, Leo Szilard, Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, General Leslie Groves, Churchill, FDR, Truman and countless others. This encyclopedic book weaves the story of the development of atomic chemistry and physics with the accompanying strands of world developments. These include the founding of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, Rutherford's work at various universities in England and Canada, WWI, the development of theoretical physics in the USA, the rise of Nazism and its accompanying flight of Jewish Physicists to the west, the parallel bomb programs of Germany, Japan, the UK and Russia and the incredible industrial and engineering efforts within the USA orchestrated by Leslie Groves. This is a very interesting book, but is not an easily read book. It should be read carefully and you should take notes if you intend to follow the converging story lines of scientific, interpersonal, political and industrial developments. I actually read most of it twice correcting and adding to my notes as I went. Beyond the discussion of bomb development, there are a few items that really struck me: 1. An atomic bomb was inevitable. There were parallel programs underway in all the major combatants of WWII. Once the war ended, most would have overcome the industrial obstacles and built fission weapons. 2. General Leslie Groves, whatever his personal peccadilloes alluded to in the book, was an organizational genius. It is beyond belief that he oversaw the acquisitions and developments necessary to bring about the factories necessary to produce the Plutonium and Uranium bombs in the time he did. 3. Franklin Roosevelt was a dictator. This to me is the most frightening aspect of this whole book. Regardless of whether he was a benevolent dictator, or not, the realization that the USA elected and accepted this is disheartening. In 800 pages there aren't three mentions of Congress, there were no checks and balances, there was no oversight of the billions spent on the Manhattan Project; "Make it happen, FDR," seemed all that was needed. When Harry Truman assumed the presidency it was days before his Secretary of War even briefed him on the bomb, he knew nothing of its existence. Please understand that he was not only the VP, but also had been a Senator, yet was completely in the dark about the Manhattan Project. The author carries through the book this idea that scientists are morally superior to everyone else. Without once explaining how these individuals attain that superiority, time and time again he bemoans the fact that Churchill and Truman wouldn't listen to Bohr , Szilard and Oppenheimer. I trust the leadership of Winston Churchill and Truman in the strategic realm as I do Bohr and Oppie in the theoretical physical world. Finally, this book is worth 5 stars, but the epilogue is a one star groaner. By 1989 the epilogue is completely irrelevant. Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II understood the inhumanity of the USSR far better than Bohr, Oppenheimer or Richard Rhodes. Fission and Thermonuclear weapons have not proven to be the plague that the author alludes. Western Civilization, rather, carries within its fabric a far more insidious plague which took no Manhattan Project to develop and has been freely, even cheerfully, employed not only to kill probably 100 million but also to destroy whole cultures. That plague is ABORTION. It has torn the fabric of Europe more surely than two world wars and has brought most European societies, both democratic and totalitarian, within sight of extinction. Abortion, not atomic weapons, reveals the true morality of this book's much heralded "Republic of Science."

When this book was published 25 years ago it was immediately recognized as a true classic, a history that was unlikely to be ever surpassed for the sheer amount of detail in it, the amazing breadth of the narrative and the spellbinding language and almost epic style that Rhodes brought in describing an earth-shattering event in human history. 25 years later this fact still rings true and it is inconceivable that anything of this caliber can ever be written. The new anniversary edition has a poignant foreword by Rhodes in which he traces the history of the book, examines our nuclear world and makes a heartfelt and yet commonsense plea for the ultimate abolition of these weapons of mass destruction. There are three things about the book which make it a timeless classic. The first is the sheer, staggering amount of meticulous research and attention to detail that Rhodes brings to his narrative. One simply marvels at the wealth of sources he must have plumbed and the time he must have spent in making sense of them, the mountains of material he must have assimilated and sorted and the number of people he must have interviewed. This book stands as a model of exhaustive research on any topic. A related aspect is the immense breadth and sweep of events, people and places that Rhodes covers. He paints on a canvas that's expansive enough to accommodate everything from quantum mechanics to the human psyche. In this book he doesn't just give us the details of the first atomic bombs but also holds forth on, among other things: the fascinating political and military personalities of the era (FDR, Truman, LeMay), a history of physics in the first half of the twentieth century, ruminations on war and peace including accounts and interpretations of key events during both World Wars, an account of anti-Semitism in Europe, the beginnings of "Big Science" in the United States, the psychological aspects of scientific personality, the moral calculus of bombing, the political history of Europe between the wars and the detailed engineering that went into building weapons of war. There are sections on each of these topics and more, and even the digressions are deep and riveting enough to temporarily immerse the reader into an alternative topic (for instance, a six page account on Jewish history and persecution transports the reader). Long paragraphs of direct quotation allow the characters to speak in their own words. What is remarkable is that Rhodes makes the material utterly gripping in spite of the extraordinarily broad coverage and the level of detail and holds the reader's attention from beginning to end through an 800 page work. This is an achievement in itself. The second aspect of this book that makes it such a fantastic read is the elegant, clear explanation of the science. It is no easy feat to describe the work of Rutherford and Oppenheimer on nuclear physics while at the same time dissecting the political manipulations of Churchill and Roosevelt. Yet Rhodes accomplishes a beautifully simplified (but not oversimplified) version of the momentous scientific ideas developed during the early twentieth century. He seems to have read the original papers on the neutron, radioactive transformations and nuclear fission and these sources are thoroughly documented in the extensive bibliography; key experiments and theories unravel into clear explanations supported by quotes from the original participants. In fact the first half of the book would be a first-rate introduction to the development of atomic physics and the life and times of brilliant scientists like Fermi, Heisenberg, Rutherford, Bohr, Chadwick, Einstein and the Curies who contributed to this discipline. These remarkable scientists are really at the center of Rhodes's account and their personalities and work come alive under his pen. This was physics during its most glorious age of discovery and nobody knew just how enormously it would impact politics and society; indeed, one of Rhodes's goals is to demonstrate how even the purest of science can have the most far-reaching practical and social ramifications. The work of all these scientists is set in revealing detail against the backdrop of growing anti-Semitism and political turmoil in Europe, and their subsequent emigration to the United States and England constitutes a very important chapter in this story. But the introduction of nuclear energy was primarily an act of science, and Rhodes excels in describing this science in patient and marvelous detail. Finally, what ensures this book's place in history is Rhodes's mesmerizing prose, of the kind employed by the select few historians and novelists like Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Herodotus who opened our eyes to world-changing historical events and to the human condition. In Rhodes's hands the making of the atomic bomb turns into an epic tale of triumph and tragedy akin to the Greek tragedies or the Mahabharata. He brings a novelist's eye to his characters and portrays them as actors in a heroic drama of victory and woe; a great example is the unforgettable opening paragraph of the book in which the physicist Leo Szilard first thinks of a chain reaction while waiting for a traffic light in London. The leading lights of the narrative are Niels Bohr and Robert Oppenheimer, brilliant men who also saw deep into the future. And there are many others, human beings laid bare in all their glorious folly, frailty and greatness, struggling to comprehend both natural and human forces. There are no saints and sinners here, only complex humans struggling to understand and control forces that are sometimes beyond their immediate comprehension, often with unintended consequences. Rhodes relentlessly drives home the point that man's greatest gifts can also be the cause of his greatest evils. He makes it clear that science, politics and human nature are inextricably linked and you cannot perturb one without perturbing the other. Taming this combustible mix will be a struggle that we will always grapple with. I first read "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" about fifteen years ago and consider it the most influential book I have ever come across. I am a scientist and the book completely changed my understanding of the inextricable relationship between science and society. Since then at any given moment I have about three copies of the book on my shelf, ready to be lent or gifted to anyone I feel might be interested. I consider it one of the best chronicles ever written about what human beings are capable of, both as creators and destroyers. In the making of the atomic bomb are lessons for all of humanity.

Richard Rhodes's "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is a comprehensive (800 page) history of the scientists and their research that culminated in the dropping of Little Boy and Fat Man on Japan in August 1945. This detailed, all-encompassing work covers the research, the scientists, the engineering, the politics, and the ethic dilemmas surrounding the creation of the first atomic bombs. Rhodes sets the scene with descriptions of the research done in small labs and universities throughout Europe around the turn of the century as the "big names" (Curies, Bohr, Fermi, and others tackled the questions of atomic research). He describes how the rise of the Nazis pushed much of the research to America, how the government was slow to realize the potential of atomic research, and finally how the bureaucratic and industrial might of America was thrown into the mix. His descriptions of the scientific problems and theories are easily understood by the lay reader. But Rhodes does more than just describe the research: he humanizes it. This is just as much a book about the scientists involved in all of this research. He describes their personal struggles and how their personalities shaped their work and their relations with each other. He describes their personal moral struggles with the unleashing of atomic power. The reader gets to know all of these scientists as people and not just as names. Rhodes also recounts the atomic research going on in Germany, Soviet Russia, and Japan during World War II. He keeps the reader apprised of events going on in the world that impacted the science and scientists. He describes military missions (such as the sabotage of the Norsk Hydro Plant in Norway that the Germans used for the production of heavy water). He weaves all of these threads into an excellent stand-alone narrative. There are a few weaknesses in the book. One is that sometimes he includes way too many extraneous details, such as a long history of anti-Semitism as a prelude to Nazi anti-Semitism, a detailed description of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and a couple pages on the Battle of Tinian Island in the Pacific. These details detracted from the overall story and unnecessarily added to the length of an already-long book. Rhodes also gets some of the details wrong, such as one picture caption about General Eisenhower visiting the front lines (this famous picture was taken in England before the D-Day assault), or his claim that FDR declared war on Germany and Italy at the same time that he declared war against Japan. One other weakness is that he seems to rush through the last year or so of the development as if, after all of the detailed history of the previous years, he realized that he was working against a deadline and had to get to the actual test and uses of the atomic bombs. He describes in some detail the founding of Los Alamos, then suddenly (relatively speaking, in a book of this length) the scientists are setting up for the Trinity tests, with only a cursory recounting of the work done in that last year at Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Hanford, Washington. Rhodes also tells the story of Neils Bohr's and Leo Szilard's visions of a post-atomic world and their early desires for arms controls. Rhodes's vivid description of the bombing of Hiroshima leads to his personal conclusion, adopting Bohr's belief in the "complementarity of the bomb," that atomic and nuclear weapons must be controlled by institutions outside of the nation-states. Interestingly, he reached this conclusion in the mid-1980s, just a couple of years before the nation-states themselves willingly backed down from Cold War.

This was a book I read a long time ago when I was a history major at a major university. With the release of a movie about Oppenheimer, I thought it might be nice to revisit one of the more interesting aspects, or should I say, elements of the Second World War. This is not a book of light reading. The majority of this book is a history lesson on physics. This was something I enjoyed but then again, I have a strong interest in the history of physics in the early 20th century. This is good stuff with some of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth century all focused on trying to end the war. They will forever change the world. The second main theme in the book is the project management process of the Manhattan Engineering District Project. It clearly shows that Oppenheimer was as much a genius in physics as he was in administering a massive project. General Lesly Groves was a master at the art of project management. In fact, he wrote his own book on the topic many years after the war. I found the personalities with both topics fascinating and could only imagine that dealing with such strong personalities and minds it was a very difficult situation to manage the resources and people to encourage the development of the bomb. Obviously, the remaining theme, and this is strangely a smaller portion of the book concerns the test at Trinity and then the decision-making process to attack Japan with the Bomb. The actual bombing of Japan is covered a space number of pages as compared to the pages devoted to the making of the bomb. I suspect that was the point of the author. This book is one hell of a read. I do have some minor issues I wonder if have been edited out of new version of the book. But none-the-less the book is nearly thirty years old and holds its weight quite well. Considering it’s over 1,000 pages, that’s a lot of weight. Realistically speaking this is a magnum opus of a work. But one expects that from Richard Rhodes. When he explores a topic, it’s done without leaving anything left on the table. He is a very strong writer and explores big topics in an approachable manner. If you are interested in this topic, I would suggest reading American Prometheus. This may be the finest history book I have ever read and would match perfectly with The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Between the two you will have a solid foundation in the topic and a great understanding of the political and military changes that faced the world after August of 1945. If you want to know more about how the project was managed, then you might want to read Now It can be Told by General Leslie Groves. If you want a more personal perspective of the bombing, then Enola Gay by Col. Paul Tibbits is an excellent read.

I still take issue with the author's POV; although he does a fairly decent job of trying to be fair and balanced, it still bleeds through. The book itself, is a brilliant survey of global physics in the 20th century, and how those discoveries turned into an atomic bomb. I have found no other reference that explains the physics behind the bomb as well as this one. I finally (almost) understood what the hell they've been talking about. Yes, shades of "Future Shock". So, to be clear, the actual nuts n bolts (or should I say micro-grams) of the story is here, and it is very good; so if you go see "Oppenheimer" and want to know more, this should be your first stop. However, I want to take issue with all these academics, who write from their ivory towers, and condemn the actions of the US, especially as concerns the use of atomic weapons. The bottom line for me is that somewhere between 500,000, and 1,000,000 US GI's would have died taking the Japanese home islands, not to mention the Japanese race would have been all but exterminated. To all these revisionists, who grab a thread here or there, and fabricate their alternate views, I say walk a mile in MY shoes. If you have never served your country, you have no skin in the game, and your opinion means nothing. It is very easy to sit on your high horse, and criticize others. As Heinlein said: "Pacifism is a shifty doctrine that claims all the benefits of the body politic, but refuses to accept any responsibility for it, and then claims a halo for their dishonesty". I think all these revisionist theories that condemn the US for dropping the bomb, conveniently ignore the realities at the time, and coincidently, push their anti-nuke agenda. The irony is the author does include all these realities I refer to in his book, he just ignores or downplays them to reach his conclusion. For example, the Japanese on their rampage through Asia, and the hundreds of thousands they killed, especially in China. Closer to home, to attack on Pearl Harbor. Not to mention, the thousands of casualties from the Island-hopping campaign, then in progress. Talk about a harbinger of things to come. When we look at Iwo, Saipan, and Tinian alone, it becomes plain that this was a war to extermination; even civilians would fight to the death, or commit suicide. If it had become necessary to invade the home islands, I don't know if the Japanese race would have even survived. So the facts are all hear; I just disagree with the author's conclusions about them. I think he puts too much weight on the views of the eggheads who built the damn thing. They are academics, wholly removed from the fighting, a luxury that gives rise to all their doubts and fears. By trade, they are all essentially intellectuals, who tend towards pacifist views in the first place. It's so easy to adopt their views and condemn the building and use of these bombs. It's a lot harder to face the cold hard truth of our nature, and the eternal struggle between good, and evil. It won't just go away if you "Imagine". Someone was going to build these damn things. If the Germans, or even the Russians were first, we probably wouldn't all be here debating these things. We'd all be dead or in a gulag. It's a fascinating story, and the author completely covers it here. The facts are all here; I just urge the reader to draw your own conclusions.

This is much more than simply a history of how the first atomic bombs were developed. Richard Rhodes begins with what he calls the 'prehistory' of the Manhattan Project, starting with the discovery of radioactivity and continuing through the steps by which physicists, chemists and other scientists came to understand the structure of the atom, the existence of protons, neutrons and electrons, as well as the various particles that may be emitted through radioactive decay or as a result of processes such as bombardment or, eventually, nuclear fission. It is a fascinating look at how scientists, working in laboratories and with tools we would consider very primitive today, were able to slowly understand the structure of the atom, something that could not be seen or directly measured but had to be understood by applying theories and logic to the experimental results they were able to obtain. As the story reaches the time when Hitler began to take power in Germany, the scientists who were the leading researchers in physics in Europe begin to migrate to England and then to the United States. Early developments at the Max Planck Institute for Physics started Germany on the road to developing its own nuclear weapon, an effort thwarted by the Allies throughout the war and severely handicapped by the loss of scientists who had fled Germany and joined the efforts in the United States. Japan also had its own nascent effort to develop a nuclear weapon but was unable to make much progress, lacking the necessary resources and industrial infrastructure. Ultimately, only the United States had the scientists (many from Europe) and industrial capability to develop nuclear weapons, and by the end of the war the various facilities that had been constructed to enrich uranium, produce plutonium and support these efforts was altogether equivalent to the size of the american automobile industry at the time. The scientists who had developed the atomic bomb were not certain it would work, or what the effects would be, until the first bomb was tested on July 16, 1945, in the New Mexico desert. This 'Trinity' test took place just one day before President Truman met with Churchill and Stalin at the Potsdam Conference. The war in Europe against Germany had concluded on May 8, 1945, but the war in the Pacific against Japan continued. President Truman now knew that he had the atomic bomb available for use against Japan, which had so far refused to agree to an unconditional surrender. The book concludes with an accounting of the bombs effects on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, recounting stories of survivors and describing what it was like on the ground for those who survived the initial blast, some with lingering effects that led to death soon thereafter, and some with longer term suffering. It is a very sobering reminder of the terrible power of these devices (John Hersey's classic account Hiroshima , first published in The New Yorker in 1946, is an even more comprehensive and definitive story). The first atomic bomb used by one nation against another was dropped on Hiroshima in Japan on August 6, 1945. It had a yield equivalent to 13-18,000 tons (13-18 kilotons) of TNT (Rhodes book states 12,500 tons, wiki now gives the range I've indicated). The second atomic bomb used by one nation against another was dropped on Nagasaki in Japan on August 9, 1945. It had a yield equivalent to 20-22,000 tons (20-22 kilotons) of TNT. Those first two bombs, causing so much devastation, with yields of about 13-22 kilotons of TNT. Since that time, atomic weapons have not again been used by one nation against another. So far. The United States (as well as the Soviet Union) subsequently developed weapons as large as megaton capability, some that were hundreds and reaching a thousand times more powerful and destructive than the bombs dropped on Japan in World War II (the largest being the USSR's Tsar Bomba, aka "Big Ivan", at 50 megaton and which was tested in 1961, but only one seems to have been built). Our current inventory, as I understand it, is largely comprised of weapons in the hundreds of kilotons range, thus ten times or greater more destructive than those WW II weapons, with others still available to us (I believe) that go even larger and may be as much as a hundred times more destructive. The yields obtained by Pakistan, in 1998 tests of their own nuclear bombs, were reported to be in the 12 kiloton and 30-36 kiloton range, and it is thought that they may have developed warheads as large as 300-500 kiloton. This "25th Anniversary" version is notable for the Forward written by Rhodes, in which he reflects on the development of the bomb as well as the concerns that are as important as ever today, where we worry about countries still seeking to develop nuclear power and nuclear weapons for their own use. Rhodes cites the 1996 Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, which asserted in its 'axiom of proliferation' that "As long as any state has nuclear weapons, others will seek to acquire them." Rhodes relates a discussion that he had with the Australian ambassador-at-large for nuclear disarmament, Richard Butler, who says "The basic reason for this assertion is that justice, which most human beings interpret essentially as fairness, is demonstrably a concept of the deepest importance to people all over the world. Relating this to the axiom of proliferation, it is manifestly the case that the attempts over the years of those who own nuclear weapons to assert that their security justifies having those nuclear weapons while the security of others does not, has been an abject failure."

There is very little exaggeration in saying that the state of atomic physics in 1900 was hardly more advanced than the theories of ancient Greek atomists, Isaac Newton's whimsical speculations, or, for that matter, the elementary physics experiments we conducted in high school in 1965. Atomic physics is a grimly fascinating branch of science; so much has been written about its apocalyptic outcomes that we overlook its rapid evolution. In a mere half century the byproducts of atomic physics would become the dominant factor of international relations and planetary survival. "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is the story of that rapid evolution. Richard Rhodes has captured the personalities and the technical breakthroughs of this remarkable five decade span, but he has also captured the times and the political upheavals that accelerated atomic research as much as the cyclotron ultimately would. Atomic breakthroughs might have occurred earlier, but the philosopher Michael Polanyi, cited in chapter two, notes the necessary confluence of the scientific community with what is already known. The nineteenth century had been the age of chemistry, not atoms, But by 1900 at least some in the scientific community [a lonely few, at first] were ready for the next step. Atoms seemed to inspire two opposite human reactions: breathtaking imagination, on the one hand, and a backbreaking attention to detail. In 1914 H.G.Wells had written "The World Set Free," a description of an imaginary atomic war between two alliances eerily similar to the alignment of World War I. One of its readers proves to be a pivotal player in this work, the eventual atomic physicist Leo Szilard. The Hungarian theoretical physicist was a creature of the lab but with an instinctive sense of European destiny, which troubled him greatly. Szilard was the first of a number of central European physicists who understood that atomic theory and application was a dangerous new force that required political nurturing and protection. The era of the Third Reich moved atomic research west, where it resided in England for several years until the conditions of WW II moved Szilard, Enrico Fermi, Edward Teller and others to the academic communities of the United States. The American military showed little interest in atomic weaponry until well after hostilities had commenced. Rhodes examines the incipient atomic programs of Germany, Japan, and Russia, the last being the most advanced. Atomic physics is not for the faint of heart, in terms of grasping at least an elementary sense of the experiments, implications, discoveries made and principles involved. Rhodes gives this process the detail it deserves; my sense is that a committed reader can follow the general outline of atomic development. In this respect the reader is in something of the same place as the scientists themselves, who were not always sure precisely what their results were telling them. I will say that the chapter "The New World" makes nuclear fission and its mechanics conceptually and physically understandable. This is the account of the first controlled nuclear reaction in 1942 in Chicago. I happened to read this work just prior to the Japanese earthquake/tsunami of 2011; the frantic efforts on the Japanese coast to submerge the reactor rods with fresh water made eminent sense after following the process detailed by Rhodes. It is worth noting--with some amazement--that less than three years prior to the tactical use of atomic bombs, science had its first verifiable evidence that atomic theory actually worked. The tactical implications of the Chicago testing still bedeviled the scientists at Los Alamos, New Mexico, who needed a triggering mechanism, a cyclotron in a suitcase, so to speak. In his biography "Racing for the Bomb," General Leslie Groves, when faced with multiple options, tended toward developing multiple schemas, a strategy which ultimately carried the day. The two bombs dropped on August 6 and 9, 1945, were triggered in significantly different way. In one case the bomb was detonated by the force of conventional implosion, while the second employed a "radioactive bullet" fired into nuclear fuel. From a technological standpoint, the odds against all three of America's first atomic bombs successfully detonating [Trinity, Hiroshima, Nagasaki] were staggering. But atomic development has always been much more than technology. Rhodes notes the discomfiture of the scientific community at the time, particularly after Germany was emasculated as a potential nuclear power. He is neither an advocate nor a prohibitionist on the matter of nuclear weaponry, but his seamless narrative and his photos from the bomb sites give the reader a stark crash course into what a dangerous business this is. He carries his story into the 1950's and the successful testing of hydrogen bombs, exponentially more powerful than anything detonated in the 1940's. The inclusion of philosopher Polanyi into this work is exceptionally fitting, because it is hard to conceive of any other branch of science which raises more ethical questions. Nothing in astronomy, biology or mathematics comes close to the potential life altering implications of atomic science. Rhodes' impartial positioning in this history has the effect of frightening off no reader of any political or military persuasion. That he is a consummate man of letters whose style is arresting and compelling carries the reader through the painstaking intricacies of the atomic process. I am an older reader who remembers the school house atomic bomb air raid drills. As I watch the generations behind me, I wonder if many people in their 20's or 30's understand the nature and destruction of nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are not the equivalent of a Chernobyl or a crippled Japanese power plant. They are instant life altering instruments whose impact is global and extending for millennia. I can think of no danger--including global warming--more critical than a citizenry that underestimates the impact of the atomic situation in the present day. I can think of no better conscious-raising than turning to Richard Rhodes.

After reading this book one carries away a deep appreciation of what it takes to produce works of such high quality. The writing style and historical overview are superb, and even though the topic of the book will instigate feelings of sadness because of the dangerous forces that a large group of individuals released upon innocent people, it also is an example of how a government/military program can succeed if its participants remain focused and respect scientific protocol. This book not only gives insight into the physics and technology behind nuclear weapons, it also assists in the understanding of the personalities idolized (and ridiculed) by popular culture and Hollywood that were involved in the Manhattan project. One should always be cautious in imputing too much to the individuals that found their way to popularity, either through their own intent or via the eagerness of the press to inflate a story. One must also not forget the contributions of those individuals who worked in the trenches to make the Manhattan project successful. Their contributions have not been popularized, but they are real and the project would not have been able to be completed without them. Thankfully the author was not content to just give an historical account of the actual beginning of the Manhattan project, but also the decades that preceded it with emphasis on the physics of radioactivity and the early speculations on atomic fission that will be familiar to those readers, such as the reviewer, who have a strong physics background. Such readers can't help be feel excited when reading of the methodologies and patterns of thought that went into developing the first particle accelerator and fission pile. Monte Carlo simulations, now done on a massive scale worldwide in financial engineering, radiology, and many other areas, have their origin in the Manhattan project with the goal of understanding neutron diffusion. At the same time, one feels a moral ambivalence about these developments and the eventual Trinity event, due to the frightening consequences that resulted in the years after it. And it is apparent that many of the participants of the Manhattan project had themselves these feelings of moral ambivalence and doubt, even during the early stages of the project. It is interesting to read for example that Edward Teller, who Hollywood has ridiculed beyond measurable levels, expressed reservations about working on weapon's research. One can respect his moral ambiguity since his life was disrupted twice by European conflicts, and this no doubt played a role in his decision to continue with the project, and with the eventual development of thermonuclear weapons. Readers can also walk away with an appreciation of the fact the physicists are fundamentally just a human as everyone else, and have interests beyond just science. It is surprising to learn for example of the soccer playing interests of Niels Bohr, and the everyday amusements of the scientists as they tried to lower their stress levels in Los Alamos. Perhaps one can conclude from these anecdotes that one should not describe people as scientists except from a purely statistical perspective. Sometimes they engage in the rational behavior that scientific research requires, and sometimes they do not. There is ample evidence for such a conclusion in this book. It is amazing that the individuals who participated in the Manhattan project were able to complete this mission in so short a time. That brings out what in the reviewers opinion is the most important conclusion to be drawn from the study of this book, namely that if a group of people remain focused on the science and the problem solving that it requires, they will achieve success, in spite of the inevitable clashing of personalities and conflicts of personal interest.

I literally could not put the book aside, I read it in every free minute I found. As someone very interested in engineering and physics, but a layman, it was very easy to follow and understand the atomic concepts and how (in theory) it worked. A lasting impression formed when the last part of the book explains in detail the reality of having used this bomb ...

It's pointless for me to endorse something that has already been highly praised by a bunch of Physics Nobel Laurates, Carl Sagan, and so more... This book can't be recommended to any specific group of readers. Almost anybody can get mesmerized by looking at the thing from owns angle. Scientists, engineers, military leaders, and political leaders everyone's role is recorded in this masterpiece. It captures in great detail how science, military & politics merged to one point in time at 5.30 am on 16 July 1945. There is lot to learn from it history, science, engineering, planning, execution, strategy, morality and ethics.... I wonder what if everything that got into this destruction would have channelized to creation! I find it necessary read. At a rate of .5 chapter per day, I took 34 days to engulf the whole thing.

その昔 Brighter than a Thousand Suns を読んだ。（その部分訳が日本語で出ていたかと思うが、それでは物足らず分厚いペーパーバックを読んだ。） それから幾星霜。映画Oppenheimer の脚本家はこの本などを参考にしたような話(本当かどうかはしらない）を読んだ。私が読んだ Brightger than a Thousand Sunsが書かれたころに比べたら機密解除でいろいろ明らかになってることもあるだろうと思い読み始めたが、最初の方を読んだだけでも丁寧にいろいろ書かれていることが分かる。 原爆を通常の市民の頭の上に２回も落とされた国の人間としては、原爆を作った側の人間にも葛藤を抱いていた人がいたということを知るのも無駄ではないと思う。 もちろん、原爆では物足りない、水爆が絶対い必要だと言っていた「水爆の父」ともいわれる Teller 氏みたいな科学者もいたが、彼も亡くなる前の１９９５年あたりには、「政治家に原子力兵器の管理を任せたのは誤りだった。」なんていうことを言い出していたらしいことを 映画 Oppenheimer の公開に合わせて最近の情報をあさって知った。 そこまでの歴史はカバーされてないと思うし、そもそも書かれたのは丁度Teller 氏がそういうことを言い始めたころだから書かれてないだろう。 しかし、書かれたころの知識を丁寧に描いていると読んでいてわかるので、おすすめできる作品だ。日本語訳もでているようだが、上に書いたような事情で先に英語版を読んでいる。映画Oppenheimerの影響で１９６０年代に日本の軍人のインタビューも含めた原爆の使用に関するNBCの番組、オッペンハイマーのインタビューなどのビデオが多数 youtube で公開されている。本を読みながらそれらも見ると考えさせられる。 大部なのでまだ終わりまで読めてないが、いい本だと思うのでお勧めの５星をつけた。

Para quem se interessar pelo assunto e, principalmente pela parte científica, técnica e política, este livro livro deve ser praticamente insuperável. As referências bibliográficas são extensas, as fotos, embora ruins também são múltiplas e o assunto é descrito do ponto de vista, principalmente, dos cientistas e em cinco ambientes diferentes, Alemanha, Russia, Japão, Inglaterra e USA. As descrições científicas das descobertas e dos experimentos são bem detalhadas e podem ser cansativas eventualmente. Alguns personagens mais importantes são mais bem detalhados e desenvolvidos. Em suma, o livro é muito compreensivo e suculento, um verdadeiro clássico no tema.

Richard Rhodes Buch gilt nicht umsonst als Standardwerk, wenn es um die Geschichte der Atombombe geht und wurde auch mit zahlreichen Preisen überhäuft. Wer das Buch bekommt, ist daher nur so mittelüberrascht, dass es ein Türstopper ist: Fast 800 eng beschriebene Paperbackseiten. Ich - kein langsamer Leser - habe fast drei Wochen gebraucht, was aber auch daran liegt, dass es keine ganz einfache Lektüre ist. Rhodes beginnt tatsächlich ganz grundlegend mit den Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern, die die theoretischen Grundlagen gelegt haben. Und mit den theoretischen Grundlagen. Wie ausführlich das ist, mekrt man daran, dass der zweite Weltkrieg erst nach etwa einem Drittel des Buches ausbricht. Wer viel Wissenschaftsgeschichtliches liest, wird hier auch vieles kennen, aber dennoch: Die Detailverliebtheit ist schon beeindruckend und die Verflechtungen sind hier entsprechend klar. Ähnliches gilt für die Anfänge und den Verlauf des zweuten Weltkrieges. Viel habe ich über die Annektion von Tschechien nicht gelesen (Vielleicht sollte man den Teil der Geschichte mal denjenigen zu lesen geben, die meinen, man solle die Ukraine des Friedens willen aufgeben). Ähnliches gilt für die Eroberung Dänemarks und dass Norwegen vor allem deswegen besetzt wurde, um dort schweres Wasser herzustellen, war mir auch unbekannt. Erst überraschend spät beginnt der Teil, der durch den Film Oppenheimer bekannt ist: Das Manhattan-Projekt. Auch hier werden viele Details ausgebreitet, manche Diskussion, manches Meeting ist vielleicht doch etwas zu viel des Guten, aber man merkt Rhodes, dass er wirklich alle Aspekte der Entstehung abbilden wollte, inklusive der Politischen (und moralischen) Diskussionen hinter den Kulissen. Die Zündungen der drei Bomben (Trinitiy, Hiroshima, Nagasaki) wird minitiös begleitet und ist (trotz bekannten Ausgangs) spannend zu lesen. Insgesamt ist es eben tatsächlich das ultimative Werk für diesen Teil der Geschichte. Die Folgen der Abwürfe werden in den Buch nur angedeutet. Daher macht es auch nichts, dass es bereits über 20 Jahre alt ist.