- Paperback: 896 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster; New edition edition (5 May 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0684813785
- ISBN-13: 978-0684813783
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.2 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
232,240 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6 in Books > History > World History > World War II 1939-1945 > Weapons > Atom Bomb
- #27 in Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Warfare & Defence > Weapons & Equipment > Nuclear Weapons
- #37 in Books > History > Military History > Weapons & Warfare > Biological & Chemical
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Product Description
Review
Carl Sagan A stirring intellectual adventure...clear, fast-paced, and indispensable.
Product Description
Here for the first time, in rich, human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan.
Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly -- or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity there was a span of hardly more than twenty-five years. What began as merely an interesting speculative problem in physics grew into the Manhattan Project, and then into the Bomb with frightening rapidity, while scientists known only to their peers -- Szilard, Teller, Oppenheimer, Bohr, Meitner, Fermi, Lawrence, and yon Neumann -- stepped from their ivory towers into the limelight.
Richard Rhodes takes us on that journey step by step, minute by minute, and gives us the definitive story of man's most awesome discovery and invention. "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" has been compared in its sweep and importance to William L. Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." It is at once a narrative tour de force and a document as powerful as its subject.
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First Sentence
In London, where Southampton Row passes Russell Square, across from the British Museum in Bloomsbury, Leo Szilard waited irritably one gray Depression morning for the stoplight to change. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
In London, where Southampton Row passes Russell Square, across from the British Museum in Bloomsbury, Leo Szilard waited irritably one gray Depression morning for the stoplight to change. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dazzling Light,
By
This review is from: The Making of the Atomic Bomb (Paperback)
Hard to add to the best reviews of this astonishing book. I'd normally struggle with an 800 page tome, but this had me riveted from beginning to end. Somehow, Richard Rhodes interweaves science, politics and the good old human ego in this tale of discovery, dedication, achievement and madness. The sheer scale of the author's research is admirable enough, but the scale of that which he describes is vast. This is, in essence, how hard-won discoveries, often by brilliant individuals, gradually reveal the process of fission chain reaction, and how this knowledge is inevitably usurped by the military in a desperate, superhuman mobilisation of resources to create the first atomic bomb. The book is more than the sum of its parts, which are grand enough. It touches on the human condition and how powerful we can be both as individuals and as dynamic, dedicated groups working towards a common goal. The goal here, terribly, is one of destruction, but the raw power of the bomb is mirrored in the controlled power of the writing and the hope that the author and contributors hold out for the wiser use of their terrifying 'gadget'. Read it and be awed.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Brilliant Giant of a Book,
This review is from: The Making of the Atomic Bomb (Paperback)
There aren't many books that can claim to tell a story as important as the story related here, in Richard Rhodes' astounding history of an astounding sequence of scientific discoveries. His book, as attested to by the praise, lives up to the epic reality.The first two thirds are the most interesting - the tale of the science, still new and very mysterious, becoming clearer gradually, often in tiny increments; and the tale of the scientists, who were moving civilisation towards something both magnificence and terrible. The final third is riveting, but can't match the thrilling story of the maturing of atomic theory and experiment. Rhodes pulls everything into the book - conversations and recollections on the streets of London; commando missions to destroy heavy-water plants in Norway; descriptions of hikes up hills during which scientists discussed the next set of scientific possibilities; and intimate character portraits of not only the key players, but of anyone who in some way impacted upon the development of the bomb. Some may find the style so exhaustive as to be exhausting; but if you are patient, Rhodes will effortlessly show you whole worlds you would never otherwise have seen. I can't recommend it highly enough.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Personalities, politics, technology, the first arms rac,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Making of the Atomic Bomb (Paperback)
A very readable account of the first realisation that a sustainable nuclear chain reaction was possible through to the use of nuclear bombs in the 2nd World War. This account was an eye opener that showed the fear felt by the allies that Hitler might beat them to the bomb. Before reading this book I had no idea why America had felt the need to use the bomb but the book reveals how the political momentum forced it's use.I fascinating read which I found so intriguing that I went on to Rhodes next book "Dark Sun".
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