The Making Of The Atomic Bomb

"The Making of the Atomic Bomb" is an incredible book that covers everything from the science behind the bombs creation to the political decisions that led to its use. Rhodes does an amazing job of making complex scientific concepts accessible to non-experts and his ability to weave together a gripping narrative that deludes into science, politics and personal stories behind one of the most significant events of the 20th century is truly impressive. Overall, this book is a must - read for anyone interested in the history of science and technology, and the impact of human decision-making on global events.

I have three hard copies of this book and have read it about six times, it's a great read! The history and technical aspect are pitched at an non-expert level although a little understanding of physics and chemistry would help the reader. It is broad in its scope and well constructed in its approach, the detail is outstanding. It in no way tries to preach, indeed the author sits very much on the fence with regard to the ethics of its use and puts the decisions made within the issues pertinent at the time. The key roles of Leo Szilard and Leslie Groves, so often overlooked by other writers, is explained in full. It's a good historical reference for an important event in world history. I was so pleased you can now get this on Kindle.

This is clearly THE book about the bomb given its depth and longevity. It covers everything, including several books worth of information far preceding the development of the bomb. That may not suit every taste and the reader should come prepared for an exhaustive recapitulation of the history and science behind the atomic bomb. I appreciated the author’s efforts to present the technical aspects in an intelligible way. Apparently the science summaries are generally accurate and they are well explained for the lay reader. Personally, I would have preferred a somewhat shorter or more concise exposition but I cannot fault the book or the incredible effort that went into it. This is a serious piece of work and in the main it is a gripping read. Highly reccomended. (The 4 star is really just for the editorial choice to go very, very broad which I do not see as a failing just a preference.). I also agree with another reviewer who felt that it would have been better to make this a two volume set. It is indeed heavy and managed with some difficulty. The spine on mine has also fallen away a bit and after a diligent read the remains don’t really belong on bookshelf.

I read a lot of reviews of this book before buying. Most of the criticism seems to centre on the 300 pages before getting into the actual Los Alomos programme. Yet, I have loved it (I am halfway through). It takes us from Einstein’s first works in relativity through each of the characters (too many to mention) and discoveries that, drip by drip, gave us the physics of the atomic bomb. The author centres the work on the characters, rather than the technology in a way that keeps the story human and engaging. Yet, as an engineer who has dabbled in the nuclear field over the past 30 years the technical details have allowed me to join many dots in my incomplete understanding of the world - it has also had me reaching for all sorts of old text books and tables that have not been opened in years to confirm some point or other mentioned in the text. I could not recommend it more highly.

It would have been easy for RIchard Rhodes to write an easygoing, mass-market, 300-page history of the Atomic Bomb. Starting with the Manhattan Project, glossing over the science and skipping ahead to the tests and then dropping the two bombs on Japan, it would be a quick read and a popular book. Rhodes doesn't do that, and his readers are much better off for it. In The Making of the Atomic Bomb, instead, he provides a detailed account of the different threads that led to the creation of the bomb. He talks about the scientists who created the bomb and their journeys from (largely) central and eastern Europe to (eventually) Los Alamos in the United States. Anti-semitism, Nazism, and War drove them westwards, while their own curiosity and the global, cooperative Republic of knowledge gives them the tools to make the bomb. Rhodes is both detailed and accessible with the science. He trusts the reader to understand what's going on, and he does a good job of helping the reader to navigate the neutrons and the alpha particles and work their way to a place where the difference between U238 and U235 feels easy and natural. The politics is very much the third narrative, given less prominence than the science or the scientists, but nonetheless Rhodes gives it all due attention. The major players, Roosevelt and Churchill especially, and the various go betweens that connected their governments with the scientists, are all present in the narrative. The Second World War itself is obviously vital, and Rhodes returns to it periodically to aid understanding of the urgency and priorities driving the project. On the bomb's eventual use, he allows witness testimony to do most of the talking. The accounts from Hiroshima and Nagasaki are horrifying, and the statistics on the number of dead and injured are unfathomable. Rhodes covers the debate among the scientists about how the post-Atomic world of weaponry should be managed (international control, treaties etc) and suggests, perhaps optimistically, that the Cold War standoff might have been avoided if information had been shared more openly at an earlier stage. In any case, the reader cannot help but be fascinated and informed by this monumental work. Highly recommended.

Absolutely fantastically researched book and a surprsingly easy read. Beginning with nuclear physics from a historical standpoint a hundred years and more before the bomb makes a lot of sense and gives a feel for exactly what a massive undertaking the bomb was It's hard to believe even now what a vast project it was - how tragic that it was for such a cause! I've read a lot of physics books over the years to try and understand nuclear physics at a basic level, but I've got to say this book gave me a better grasp than some of the text books.A must read for anyone interested in the history or the science of atomic weapons.

The title of Richard Rhodes' excellent book really does not do justice to the full scope of this work. Here we have a history of nuclear physics beginning back in the 19th Century. One may say that Mr. Rhodes is simply laying the foundations for the main story, but they are pretty extensive and robust foundations for all that. His construction will not crumble any time soon, nor is it likely to be demolished for something more solid. Not only do we get the nuclear physics background but also a very creditable and concise account of the social and political environment in the decades leading up to the Second World War - completely relevant of course because it was so important in the formation of the lead characters in this fascinating story as well as creating the impetus to develop the Bomb during the war years themselves. If I have any gripe at all with this book it is that the main narrative - the rapidly developing nuclear physics - was so enthralling that the frequent digression into biography as the key players came into view had me champing at the bit in frustration and, yes I am ashamed to admit, occasionally had me skipping ahead.

A thoroughly researched account of the making of the atomic bomb and the science, events, characters, politics and aftermath. This is a comprehensive piece of scientific historical literature which wears its scholarship lightly. Highly recommended.

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。

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.

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.