The Making of the Atomic Bomb

25th Anniversary Edition

Ranked #5 in Nuclear Physics, Ranked #16 in History Of Sciencesee more rankings.

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...
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Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of The Making of the Atomic Bomb from the world's leading experts.

Bill Earner My favorite book is The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. It's a book that covers a vast range of topics over a fifty year period. It talks about the scientific advances that led to the bomb, the personalities that made those advances, and at the same time covers the political choices and escalation of violence over the course of the first half of the 20th Century that paint the use of the atomic bomb on Japan as an almost inevitable conclusion of that escalation. The prose is as incredible as the story. It's really a treat to rea (Source)

Tom Clarke This is the best history of the greatest minds in science alive at the time, or maybe ever, and how they were brought together to build this bomb. (Source)


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