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Review
Carl Sagan A stirring intellectual adventure...clear, fast-paced, and indispensable.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
With a new Introduction by the author, the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning epic about how the atomic bomb came to be.
In rich, human, political, and scientific detail, here is the complete story of the nuclear bomb.
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 merely as 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 von 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" is at once a narrative tour de force and a document as powerful as its subject. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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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
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format: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
Format: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
Format: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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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Interesting and Intriguing
One of the most interesting books I have ever read. I'm not sure about whether it is a 're-hash' of another book (as a previous reviewer comments) but I give this book 5 stars on... Read more
Published 21 days ago by Jacko
Big book
Massive book. Does justice to the greatest scientific endeavour of the 20th Century.
Fascinating background bio's on the main players as personality always plays a role in... Read more
Fascinating background bio's on the main players as personality always plays a role in... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Nigel
Pulitzer prizewinner
Published in the 1980s, this book won the Pulitzer Prize - and deservedly so. The early chapters can be rather heavy going, the reader will wonder why they are being told about the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by CJOldvet
absolutely first rate scientific and political history
This is one of those books that has it all: fascinating personalities, fundamental scientific discoveries explained with utter clarity, and the birth of political issues that are... Read more
Published 12 months ago by rob crawford
An Awesome Book...
...with an awesome reputation - and it is well deserved. A masterly and scholarly account of the dawn of the nuclear age from the pioneering nuclear physicists (and yes, you will... Read more
Published 18 months ago by pendula
Thirty year rule of plagiarism?
I haven't read this book but award it two stars on the following basis...
... As you get older you notice patterns which a more restricted time window tend to hide. Read more
... As you get older you notice patterns which a more restricted time window tend to hide. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Rerevisionist
Astonishing Epic
Not only does Rhodes tell us the story of the Manhattan Project (and that is mind-boggling enough in its enormity and audacity) but he tells the riveting tale of the scientific... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Klaatu
Weighty tome about harmless overblown fireworks
This glorified pamphlet about the progression from the first sparks of radiation to the explosive nature of the Fat Boy and Little Man bombs is a treat. Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2009 by Ramsey Tupper - Raven's Foot
A true story of innovation - theory to reality
This book was recommended as part of an Innovation Management course that I undertook.
If you can see beyond the history, and the politics there are a number of... Read more
If you can see beyond the history, and the politics there are a number of... Read more
Published on 10 Nov 2008 by Robert A. Carter
The nuclear arms development bible
This is book is sincerley the most engaging and well-written non-fiction title I have ever read. Exceptionally well-researched, this book takes you from the beginnings of atomic... Read more
Published on 16 Aug 2007 by Phil Gill
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