- Paperback: 369 pages
- Publisher: Harcourt Publishers Ltd College Publishers; 1st American Ed edition (Jun 1970)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0156141507
- ISBN-13: 978-0156141505
- Product Dimensions: 20.5 x 13.4 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
259,051 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #15 in Books > History > World History > World War II 1939-1945 > Weapons > Atom Bomb
- #76 in Books > Science & Nature > Physics > Nuclear
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Product Description
Synopsis
An account of the discoveries and the dilemmas of those involved in the creation of the nuclear bomb.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Robert Jungk went to a lot of trouble to interview as many people as possible who'd worked on the A-bomb, and produced this well written history of the Manhatten Project. It's a bit dated, but if I had to recommend three books on this subject, this would be one of them (the others would be Richard Rhode's THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB and Lillian Hoddeson's CRITICAL ASSEMBLY). There's interesting information in here I haven't read anywhere else, and I've read over a dozen books on the Manhatten Project.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is the most well-researched book about the Manhattan project that I have read. The author has taken pains to get to the "facts", which are difficult to get at wartime, and has also tried to present them as facts, taking extra care to remove his personal opinions/comments. Even though most of the book is presentation of the stark, cold facts, it does bring about the realization that no matter how advanced we get technologically, lack of trust (on people) can quickly destroy all that we have achieved. Even the sharpest scientists, and the most perspicacious philosophers are not immune to this curse.
I would not hesitate at all to recommend this book to anyone with the slightest inclination to read about the second world war, the manhattan project or Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I would not hesitate at all to recommend this book to anyone with the slightest inclination to read about the second world war, the manhattan project or Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Originally published in German in 1956. First English translation 1958. So it covers up to the claimed Soviet nuclear H bomb, and the 'Lucky Dragon' incident of supposed irradiated Japanese fishermen. Jungk was apparently a Berlin Jew, born 1913, who studied European classics and got a PhD in 'modern European history' - presumably Europe since the French Revolution.
I reread this to try to disentangle mythology from truth. Jungk as might perhaps be guessed says virtually nothing about the science or technology - or mistakes. There is (for example) no account of separation of U235; no account of why 'heavy water' might be important, or how it's isolated; no account even of where uranium was mined. Jungk says in effect that radioactive poison can now be made more or less indefinitely - but this seems not true since the supply of neutrons seemed/seems fixed by the amount of uranium mined. Jungk made little attempt to check anything, though there are a few letters to him from physicists.
Jungk's main attitude is rather awestruck reverence in quotation - for example, a Japanese physicist is quoted as saying only an atomic bomb could do this. This doesn't really work: for example, Jungk says hugely detailed calculations were needed. (He doesn't say what they were and in fact one has to wonder whether it's true - but I suppose if computers then resembled pocket calculators, well, they would be of some use. But if the need for elaborate calculations is true, how come the measured blast from explosions was supposed to be far greater than estimated?
Unfortunately Jungk is uncritical as regards the political material: as an example there's a whole section on Oppenheimer's fall, but although the type of building, sofa, characters of the nterviewee/interrogators, weather, tone of voice, etc etc are detailed, it's not made clear what he was charged with - let alone of course how serious it was.
An appendix is the 'Franck Report' to I think Stimson. This is full of comment on dangers of nuclear weapons, proliferation, treaties, control, and so on. Astonishingly, this was dated a few months before the first test, at night, in a remote country area, ten miles from observers, with full military secrecy! They had a lot to lose if their huge funding was found not to work.
I reread this to try to disentangle mythology from truth. Jungk as might perhaps be guessed says virtually nothing about the science or technology - or mistakes. There is (for example) no account of separation of U235; no account of why 'heavy water' might be important, or how it's isolated; no account even of where uranium was mined. Jungk says in effect that radioactive poison can now be made more or less indefinitely - but this seems not true since the supply of neutrons seemed/seems fixed by the amount of uranium mined. Jungk made little attempt to check anything, though there are a few letters to him from physicists.
Jungk's main attitude is rather awestruck reverence in quotation - for example, a Japanese physicist is quoted as saying only an atomic bomb could do this. This doesn't really work: for example, Jungk says hugely detailed calculations were needed. (He doesn't say what they were and in fact one has to wonder whether it's true - but I suppose if computers then resembled pocket calculators, well, they would be of some use. But if the need for elaborate calculations is true, how come the measured blast from explosions was supposed to be far greater than estimated?
Unfortunately Jungk is uncritical as regards the political material: as an example there's a whole section on Oppenheimer's fall, but although the type of building, sofa, characters of the nterviewee/interrogators, weather, tone of voice, etc etc are detailed, it's not made clear what he was charged with - let alone of course how serious it was.
An appendix is the 'Franck Report' to I think Stimson. This is full of comment on dangers of nuclear weapons, proliferation, treaties, control, and so on. Astonishingly, this was dated a few months before the first test, at night, in a remote country area, ten miles from observers, with full military secrecy! They had a lot to lose if their huge funding was found not to work.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Misleading - Part of the post-WW2 Rigged-up Consensus
Originally published in German in 1956. First English translation 1958. So it covers up to the claimed Soviet nuclear H bomb, and the 'Lucky Dragon' incident of supposed irradiated... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Rerevisionist
Light from a different direction!
Recently, in theatres in London and New York, the public was treated to the drama "Copenhagen," by British playwright Michael Frayn, and it revisited the theme of this now old... Read more
Published on 16 July 2006 by Palle E T Jorgensen
Bad History
Jungk gave great credit to the "Lesart" (roughly, "fairytale") concocted by Werner Heisenberg and C.F. Read more
Published on 8 Nov 2004
Very interesting & easy to read
This book was written nearly 50 years ago in the 1950's, so naturally some of the stories are incomplete with todays hindsight, but I wish I'd read this book 20 years ago. Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2003 by Keith Appleyard
History of the men who made possible the Manhattan project.
(Although I said men I wanted to say men/women). This book shows the lives of the people involved in the development of the Atomic Bomb. Read more
Published on 8 Mar 1999
A brilliant story about the people that built the A-Bomb.
This is perhaps, one of the first books written about the people involved in the making of the atomic bomb. Read more
Published on 21 Oct 1998
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